Mol Psychiatry

Heparin therapy tied to delayed diagnosis of Alzheimer’s

October 18, 2024

Heparin therapy was associated with significant delays in age of clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia, supporting a potential role for heparin-like drugs and heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the prevention of AD dementia.

Investigators used electronic health records from two different health systems to examine the association between heparin therapy and timing of diagnosis of AD dementia: Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS; n = 15,183) and Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC; n = 6,207).

In the MSHS cohort, heparin therapy was associated with a one-year delay in clinical diagnosis of AD dementia, while in the CUMC cohort a two-year delay was seen.

Authors call for future studies to verify the findings in additional cohorts (including APOE genotyped patients), investigate heparin dosage and duration responses, and profile the effects of heparin administration in molecular studies of AD-model systems.

Source:

Readhead B, et al. (2024, October 8). Mol Psychiatry. Heparin treatment is associated with a delayed diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia in electronic health records from two large United States health systems. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39379683/