Cellular Circadian Period and its Deviation Associate with Alzheimer’s Disease and Brain Aging. Roh et al.

Research Hypothesis
We hypothesized that intrinsic circadian rhythms measured at the cellular level, specifically the fibroblast circadian period and its deviation from 24 h (Δ-period), are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related pathology, aging, neurodegeneration, cognitive decline, and clinical progression.

What the Data Show
In 135 older adults with cognitive concerns, dermal fibroblasts were assayed using BMAL1-luciferase bioluminescence to estimate cellular circadian period and Δ-period. A longer period correlated with higher plasma pTau-217, NfL, GFAP and greater medial temporal lobe atrophy, while a greater Δ-period associated with older age, worse cognition across multiple domains (language, memory, visuospatial), and more widespread gray-matter loss. Longitudinally, both a longer period (HR 4.4) and greater Δ-period (HR 2.7) predicted faster clinical worsening (CDR-SB progression).

What the Data Are
The dataset is organized into five anonymized participant-level files:

1. Demographics and Covariates (1_demographics_covariates.xlsx)
Variables: subject_id, age, sex, education, diabetes, hypertension, depressive_symptoms_SGDS_score, cognitive_enhancer_use, antidepressant_use, benzodiazepine_use, antipsychotics_use, sleep_medication_use, nutrition_MNA_score, physical_activity_IPAQ_score, apoe_e4_carrier, mmse_score, cdr_sum_of_box.

2. Plasma Biomarkers & Imaging Variables (2_neuroimaging_plasma_biomarkers.xlsx)
Variables: subject_id, A_Amyloid_PET_Positivity, A_Amyloid_PET_Centiloid, T_Plasma_pTau217, N_Plasma_NfL, N_MRI_Neurodegeneraion,
I_Plasma_GFAP, V_MRI_periventricular, V_MRI_deep_white_matter.

3. Cognition (3_cognition.xlsx)
Variables: subject_id, general_cognition, language_function, verbal_memory_function, visuospatial_memory_function, frontal_executive_function.

4. Cellular Circadian Metrics (4_cell_circadian_metrics.xlsx)
Variables: subject_id, cellular_period, cellular_delta_period.

5. Longitudinal Follow-up (5_longitudinal_data.xlsx)
Variables: subject_id, cellular_period, cellular_period_Q1_Q234_Q5, cellular_delta_period, cellular_delta_period_0.75_binary,
clinical_progression_yn, clinical_progression_fu_time.

Access and Ethics
All data are de-identified and IRB-approved (AJOUIRB-SUR-2021-038) with informed consent. Data are provided for research purposes only; please cite the dataset and associated manuscript when reusing.