Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein(hs-CRP) and telomere length(TL) with cognitive function in the patients with Alzheimer′s disease (AD), and to investigated the characteristics of cognitive impairment in the patients with different TL. Methods A total of 135 elderly patients were involved and divided into normal control group (NC group, n=49) and AD group (n=86). Demographic and general clinical data were collected. Venous blood was extracted to measure hs-CRP, and peripheral blood leukocyte DNA was extracted to measure TL. The score of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to evaluate the level of cognitive function. The levels of hs-CRP and TL were compared between the two groups. The AD patients were further categoried into three subgroups by TL, and the MoCA scores were compared between the subgroups. Results The level of TL in AD group was significantly shorter than that in NC group(P<0.01), while the level of hs-CRP was higher (P<0.05). Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that hs-CRP, serum homocysteine and shortening TL were the independent risk factors for AD. In the AD group, the patients with short telomere presented with more serious cognitive impairment in visual space, executive ability, attention, calculation ability, abstraction and memory compared with the patients with long telomere. Conclusions TL shows linear correlation with cognitive dysfunction in AD patients.

Key words: telomere length, Alzheimer′s disease, cognitive function, inflammation