Background: As a result of the substantial rise in the life expectancy of people with Down syndrome in recent years, there is now a greater group of individuals with the condition who show early signs of ageing. The current study was carried out to evaluate age-related changes in the blood levels of a predictive biomarker for early identification of neurodegenerative alterations in people with Down syndrome.
Methods: This study was conducted on two groups of Down syndrome patients: group 1 consisted of 30 children between the ages of 2 and 7years of age; group 2 consisted of 30 adolescents between the ages of 17 and 20 years of age. The control group was composed of 60 healthy children and adolescents who were matched for age and sex. All the cases and controls were subjected to: Complete history taking, Clinical examination, Anthropometric measurements, Karyotype analysis and Blood sampling to assess the serum level of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, Malondialdehyde and Glutathione peroxidase.
Results: Serum levels of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and Malondialdehyde revealed a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05), while Glutathione peroxidase showed a statistically significant decrease in between the Down syndrome groups 1 and 2 (aged 2 to 7 years and 17 to 20 years, respectively) when compared to the control group. Furthermore, there were a highly significant increase (P<0.05) in only Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and Malondialdehyde levels between the two Down syndrome groups.