BLOOD protein changes associated with menopause may offer insights into brain ageing and later cognitive health, according to research involving almost 15,000 women across multiple cohorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers identified menopause-related molecular changes affecting inflammatory, metabolic, and neurological pathways. These changes were more strongly associated with hormonal shifts than chronological age, while higher menopause-related protein scores were linked to poorer cognitive outcomes in later life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigating the Biological Effects of Menopause\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers initially analysed blood samples from 80 women aged between 43 and 58 years, comprising of 30 premenopausal, 26 perimenopausal, and 24 postmenopausal participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using an ultrasensitive protein analysis technique, they identified 16 proteins that were elevated in postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These proteins were associated with immune responses, synaptic function, metabolism, and biological processes implicated in Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers combined the findings into a menopause-related proteomic score, which increased progressively across the menopause transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Higher scores were associated with lower oestradiol concentrations and higher follicle-stimulating hormone levels. When hormonal measures and age were examined together, hormone levels showed a stronger relationship with the protein changes than chronological age.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Menopause Associated with Accelerated Biological Ageing\u00a0<\/p>\n
The findings were subsequently examined in 2,814 age-matched women from UK Biobank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the 2,923 proteins assessed, 1,300 differed significantly according to menopausal status, with most showing higher concentrations after menopause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers also identified molecular patterns associated with accelerated biological ageing across several organs and cell types, including the brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among 2,340 women assessed using protein-based ageing measures, postmenopausal participants had less favourable age estimates for 11 of 13 organs and 36 of 38 cell types compared with premenopausal or perimenopausal women of similar ages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These findings suggest that the menopause transition may involve broader biological changes extending beyond the reproductive system.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Could Blood Proteins Identify Cognitive Risk?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers then investigated the relationship between menopause-related protein signatures and cognitive health in four independent cohorts of older women, involving 11,925 participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Higher proteomic scores were consistently associated with less favourable cognitive outcomes, including faster cognitive decline in two longitudinal cohorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a UK Biobank analysis involving 11,059 women followed for approximately 15.7 years, higher menopause-related protein scores were associated with a 15% increased hazard of Alzheimer\u2019s disease dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, significant associations were not observed for all-cause, vascular, or frontotemporal dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study was observational and does not establish that menopause-related protein changes cause dementia. The researchers also emphasise that most women do not develop dementia following menopause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the findings suggest that the menopause transition could provide an important opportunity to investigate molecular markers associated with later brain health and identify potential therapeutic targets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reference\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wood Alexander M. et al. Blood proteomics of menopause map to brain aging and dementia risk. Nat Med. 2026. doi:10.1038\/s41591-026-04648-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLOOD protein changes associated with menopause may offer insights into brain ageing and later cognitive health, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-912113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}