Decoding the Delirium Proteome: Linking Clinical Vulnerabilities to Acute Brain Dysfunction

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2026
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Abstract
Abstract Background Delirium is an acute brain dysfunction syndrome with high morbidity and mortality, however its mechanisms remain poorly understood. Although multiple risk factors have been identified, directly targeting them is challenging. Proteins may provide new insights into this challenge. Methods Using data from the UK Biobank, we explored associations between 18 established delirium risk factors and incident delirium using Cox proportional hazards models. Plasma proteomic profiling was conducted to identify proteins associated with delirium. Identified proteins underwent KEGG/GO pathway and mediation analyses to evaluate their potential involvement in the associations between risk factors and delirium. Results Over a median 13.5-year follow-up, 701 participants developed delirium. Among 2,915 plasma proteins, 78 were significantly associated with delirium after Bonferroni correction, including NEFL, GFAP, WFDC2, PLAUR, and GDF15. Enrichment analysis suggested that these proteins were predominantly involved in immune, inflammatory, and metabolic processes. Mediation analysis indicated that some proteins may statistically mediate the associations between clinical risk factors and incident delirium; for example, NEFL (11.7%) and EDA2R (10.4%) for age, PLAUR (47.2%) and MSLN (40.1%) for smoking, GDF15 (40.6%) and C7 (16.3%) for diabetes, WFDC2 (13.4%) and PLAUR (13.1%) for frailty. Overall, 24 proteins statistically mediated the associations between at least 9 risk factors and delirium, with GDF15, PLAUR, AREG, HAVCR1, OCLN, and VSIG4, showing relatively higher statistical estimates. Conclusions This large-scale study identifies plasma proteins that may help explain some of the observed associations between clinical risk factors and incident delirium, generating hypotheses about underlying mechanisms and potential avenues for further research.
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Authors Xiaoxiao Wang, Kaixi Liu, Xiangyang Guo, Nan Li, Zhengqian Li
Journal the journals of gerontology series a, biological sciences and medical sciences
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/gerona/glag139
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glag139
Keywords Keywords not found

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