Associations of Green Tea Consumption and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology in Cognitively Intact Older Adults: The CABLE Study

Background: Green tea has been widely recognized in ameliorating cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), especially the progression of cognitive dysfunction. But the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Objective: This study was designed to determine the role of green tea consumption in the association with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD pathology and to ascertain whether specific population backgrounds showed the differences toward these relationships. Methods: Multivariate linear models analyzed the available data on CSF biomarkers and frequency of green tea consumption of 722 cognitively intact participants from the Chinese Alzheimer’s Biomarker and LifestylE (CABLE) database, and we additionally detected the interaction effects of tea consumption with APOE ɛ4 status and gender using a two-way analysis of covariance. Results: Frequent green tea consumption was associated with a decreased level of CSF total-tau protein (t-tau) (p = 0.041) but not with the levels of CSF amyloid-β 42 (Aβ42) and CSF phosphorylated tau. The more pronounced associations of green tea consumption with CSF t-tau (p = 0.007) and CSF t-tau/Aβ42 (p = 0.039) were observed in individuals aged 65 years or younger. Additionally, males with frequent green tea consumption had a significantly low level of CSF t-tau/Aβ42 and a modest trend toward decreased CSF t-tau. There were no interaction effects of green tea consumption with APOE ɛ4 and gender. Conclusion: Collectively, our findings consolidated the favorable effects of green tea on the mitigation of AD risk. The constituents of green tea may improve abnormal tau metabolism and are promising targets in interventions and drug therapies.