The Link Between Serum Levels of Dehydroepiandrosterone and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study in the Serbian Population
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background and aim Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent type of dementia and a major health concern among the elderly population. Considering the role of neurosteroids in neurodegenerative processes, this pilot study aimed to investigate the association between serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) and cortisol concentrations, as well as their ratio, in patients with AD compared with cognitively intact individuals. Methods An observational case-control study was conducted involving 45 patients with clinically probable AD, diagnosed according to the 2011 National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association criteria, and 40 healthy control participants matched for age and sex. Fasting morning serum concentrations of DHEA-S and cortisol were measured after a 12-hour overnight fast in all participants, and the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio was calculated. Cognitive status was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Clinical Dementia Rating scales. Results No statistically significant difference in serum DHEA-S concentrations was found between patients with AD and controls. However, patients with AD had significantly higher cortisol levels (398.85 vs. 337.40 nmol/L; p = 0.026) and a higher cortisol/DHEA-S ratio, showing a trend toward statistical significance (p = 0.078). Among participants aged 65-75 years, the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio was significantly higher in patients with AD than in controls (p = 0.031). In the control group, males had significantly higher DHEA-S levels than females (p = 0.020), whereas no sex difference was observed in the AD group. Conclusions The findings of this pilot study suggest that elevated cortisol levels and an imbalance in the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio may contribute to AD pathophysiology. DHEA-S alone did not show a significant association with disease presence, but the observed age- and sex-related differences indicate that this neurosteroid may play a differential role in the development and progression of AD.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".