Perna L, Trares K, Perneczky R, et al. - Using data from an ongoing population-based cohort study of older adults, researchers sought to determine if late-onset depression and cognitive decline due to vascular pathology (vascular dementia) share a common inflammatory etiology.

• Researchers randomly selected a subgroup of participants of the ESTHER study (n = 1,665).

• With the Olink Target 96, measurement of inflammatory biomarkers was done in baseline samples.

• Analysis revealed the occurrence of changes in inflammatory markers years before clinical diagnosis of depression.

• For risk of late-onset depression, the strongest inflammatory marker was interleukin 10 and the odds for late-onset depression and vascular dementia exhibited a similar monotonic rise with increasing levels of interleukin 10.

• Risk stratification could be done using information relating to changes in inflammatory markers, especially interleukin 10, but the information did not allow differentiation of late-onset depression from vascular dementia in early stages.