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The specific impact of uremic toxins upon cognitive domains: a review

ABSTRACT

One of the mechanisms proposed for chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related cognitive impairment is the accumulation of uremic toxins due to the deterioration of the renal clearance function. Cognition can be categorized into five major domains according to its information processing functions: memory, attention, language, visual-spatial, and executive. We performed a review using the terms 'uric acid', 'indoxyl sulfate', 'p-cresyl sulfate', 'homocysteine', 'interleukins' and 'parathyroid hormone'. These are the compounds that were found to be strongly associated with cognitive impairment in CKD in the literature. The 26 selected articles point towards an association between higher levels of uric acid, homocysteine, and interleukin 6 with lower cognitive performance in executive, attentional, and memory domains. We also reviewed the hemodialysis effects on cognition. Hemodialysis seems to contribute to an amelioration of CKD-related encephalopathic dysfunction, although this improvement occurs more in some cognitive domains than in others.

Keywords:
Uremia; Cognitive Dysfunction; Knowledge; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic; Renal Dialysis; Toxins, Biological; Memory; Executive Function; Attention

RESUMO

Um dos mecanismos propostos para explicar o comprometimento cognitivo relacionado à doença renal crônica (DRC) é o acúmulo de toxinas urêmicas devido à deterioração da função de depuração renal. A cognição pode ser categorizada em cinco domínios principais de acordo com suas funções de processamento de informações: memória, atenção, linguagem, visual-espacial e executiva. Realizamos uma revisão usando os termos "ácido úrico", "indoxil sulfato", "p-cresil sulfato", "homocisteína", "interleucinas" e "paratormônio". Estes são os compostos que se mostraram fortemente associados ao comprometimento cognitivo na DRC na literatura. Os 26 artigos selecionados apontam para uma associação entre níveis mais elevados de ácido úrico, homocisteína e interleucina-6 com menor desempenho cognitivo nos domínios executivo, atenção e de memória. Também revisamos os efeitos da hemodiálise na cognição. A hemodiálise parece contribuir para uma melhoria da disfunção encefalopática relacionada à DRC, embora essa melhora ocorra mais em alguns domínios cognitivos do que em outros.

Palavras-chave:
Uremia; Disfunção Cognitiva; Conhecimento; Insuficiência Renal Crônica; Diálise Renal; Toxinas Biológicas; Memória; Função Executiva; Atenção

INTRODUCTION

Many potentially toxic compounds build up in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD); the biologically active ones are called uremic toxins (UTs)11 Vanholder R, Glorieux G, De Smet R, Lameire N; European Uremic Toxin Work Group. New insights in uremic toxins. Kidney Int Suppl 2003;(84):S6-10.,22 Vanholder R, Van Laecke S, Glorieux G. What is new in uremic toxicity? Pediatr Nephrol 2008;23:1211-21.. UTs comprise around 150 compounds that may cause many deleterious effects, such as systemic inflammation, cardiac failure, anemia, immune dysfunction, anorexia22 Vanholder R, Van Laecke S, Glorieux G. What is new in uremic toxicity? Pediatr Nephrol 2008;23:1211-21., neurological damage, and cognitive impairment.

CKD patients have a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment (CI) related to CKD (CKD-CI) even in the earlier stages33 Madan P, Kalra OP, Agarwal S, Tandon OP. Cognitive impairment in chronic kidney disease. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2007;22:440-4.

4 Buchman AS, Tanne D, Boyle PA, Shah RC, Leurgans SE, Bennett DA. Kidney function is associated with the rate of cognitive decline in the elderly. Neurology 2009;73:920-7.

5 Etgen T, Sander D, Chonchol M, Briesenick C, Poppert H, Förstl H, et al. Chronic kidney disease is associated with incident cognitive impairment in the elderly: the INVADE study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2009;24:3144-50.

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-77 Elias MF, Elias PK, Seliger SL, Narsipur SS, Dore GA, Robbins MA. Chronic kidney disease, creatinine and cognitive functioning. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2009;24:2446-52., which affects their daily life and work capacity, and causes increased periods of hospitalization88 Bugnicourt JM, Godefroy O, Chillon JM, Choukroun G, Massy ZA. Cognitive disorders and dementia in CKD: the neglected kidney-brain axis. J Am Soc Nephrol 2013;24:353-63.. Most importantly, CKD-CI is an independent predictor of mortality in patients submitted to dialysis and is associated with an almost three times greater mortality risk in 7 years99 Griva K, Stygall J, Hankins M, Davenport A, Harrison M, Newman SP. Cognitive impairment and 7-year mortality in dialysis patients. Am J Kidney Dis 2010;56:693-703.. More than 70% of hemodialysis (HD) patients older or equal to 55 years have moderate-to-severe CKD-CI1010 Murray AM. Cognitive impairment in the aging dialysis and chronic kidney disease populations: an occult burden. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis 2008;15:123-32..

CKD-CI's hypothetical mechanism can be divided into neurodegenerative88 Bugnicourt JM, Godefroy O, Chillon JM, Choukroun G, Massy ZA. Cognitive disorders and dementia in CKD: the neglected kidney-brain axis. J Am Soc Nephrol 2013;24:353-63.,1111 Lu R, Kiernan MC, Murray A, Rosner MH, Ronco C. Kidney-brain crosstalk in the acute and chronic setting. Nat Rev Nephrol 2015;11:707-19.

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15 Silvestrini M, Pasqualetti P, Baruffaldi R, Bartolini M, Handouk Y, Matteis M, et al. Cerebrovascular reactivity and cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer disease. Stroke 2006;37:1010-5.
-1616 O'Brien JT, Erkinjuntti T, Reisberg B, Roman G, Sawada T, Pantoni L, et al. Vascular cognitive impairment. Lancet Neurol 2003;2:89-98. components. The former accounts for UTs' direct neurotoxicity, resulting in the alteration of the brain's redox environment, along with the promotion of central nervous system excitotoxicity through the activation of the glutamatergic pathways and the inhibition of the GABAergic ones1717 De Deyn PP, D'Hooge R, Van Bogaert PP, Marescau B. Endogenous guanidino compounds as uremic neurotoxins. Kidney Int Suppl 2001;78:S77-83.. The latter states that UTs1414 Stinghen AE, Pecoits-Filho R. Vascular damage in kidney disease: beyond hypertension. Int J Hypertens 2011;2011:232683. along with systemic hemodynamic impairment related to CKD1515 Silvestrini M, Pasqualetti P, Baruffaldi R, Bartolini M, Handouk Y, Matteis M, et al. Cerebrovascular reactivity and cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer disease. Stroke 2006;37:1010-5. also cause a direct effect on the cerebral endothelium, resulting in oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, hypercoagulability88 Bugnicourt JM, Godefroy O, Chillon JM, Choukroun G, Massy ZA. Cognitive disorders and dementia in CKD: the neglected kidney-brain axis. J Am Soc Nephrol 2013;24:353-63.,1818 Fassbender K, Mielke O, Bertsch T, Nafe B, Fröschen S, Hennerici M. Homocysteine in cerebral macroangiography and microangiopathy. Lancet 1999;353:1586-7.,1919 Wright CB, Paik MC, Brown TR, Stabler SP, Allen RH, Sacco RL, et al. Total homocysteine is associated with white matter hyperintensity volume: the Northern Manhattan Study. Stroke 2005;36:1207-11., and disruption of the blood-brain barrier and cellular water transport2020 Brouns R, De Deyn PP. Neurological complications in renal failure: a review. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 2004;107:1-16.,2121 Benga O, Huber VJ. Brain water channel proteins in health and disease. Mol Aspects Med 2012;33:562-78.. This corroborates the fact that CKD patients have a higher incidence of cerebral microbleeds2222 Shima H, Ishimura E, Naganuma T, Yamazaki T, Kobayashi I, Shidara K, et al. Cerebral microbleeds in predialysis patients with chronic kidney disease. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2010;25:1554-9.,2323 Yokoyama S, Hirano H, Uomizu K, Kajiya Y, Tajitsu K, Kusumoto K. High incidence of microbleeds in hemodialysis patients detected by T2*-weighted gradient-echo magnetic resonance imaging. Neurol Med Chir (Tokyo) 2005;45:556-60., silent brain infarcts, and white matter lesions (leukariosis)1010 Murray AM. Cognitive impairment in the aging dialysis and chronic kidney disease populations: an occult burden. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis 2008;15:123-32., even when adjusted for common risk factors (e.g.: hypertension and diabetes mellitus)2424 Weiner DE, Bartolomei K, Scott T, Price LL, Griffith JL, Rosenberg I, et al. Albuminuria, cognitive functioning, and white matter hyperintensities in homebound elders. Am J Kidney Dis 2009;53:438-47.,2525 Wada M, Nagasawa H, Iseki C, Takahashi Y, Sato H, Arawaka S, et al. Cerebral small vessel disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD): results of a cross-sectional study in community-based Japanese elderly. J Neurol Sci 2008;272:36-42.. Nevertheless, the impact of specific UTs upon cognition and the exact mechanisms by which they occur are still not completely understood, despite the increasing necessity for a systematic characterization that could improve the identification and management of CKD-CI2626 Watanabe K, Watanabe T, Nakayama M. Cerebro-renal interactions: impact of uremic toxins on cognitive function. Neurotoxicology 2014;44:184-93..

Therefore, we reviewed literature data regarding the mechanisms by which homocysteine and uremic toxins with a higher impact on the emergence of CKD-CI.2626 Watanabe K, Watanabe T, Nakayama M. Cerebro-renal interactions: impact of uremic toxins on cognitive function. Neurotoxicology 2014;44:184-93. - uric acid, indoxyl sulphate, p-cresyl sulphate, interleukins 1-β and 6, and parathyroid hormone - can produce deleterious effects on cognition (data shown in Table 1). We conducted an analysis on the possible relationship between the main uremic toxins on one side, and the basic cognitive domains on the other (data shown in Table 2), which reveal a consistent cognitive deterioration pattern associated with CKD-CI. Finally, we also reviewed the influence of HD upon each different cognitive domain among CKD patients, identifying which domains benefit the most from this treatment.

Table 1
Current mechanistic data on some of the most meaningful uremic toxins, as stated by Watanabe and colleagues26 with the addition of HCy
Table 2
Cognitive domains affected by each of the searched UTs. The references in the table correspond to the 26 selected articles

UREMIC TOXINS AND COGNITIVE DOMAINS

The categorization of cognition into discrete cognitive domains is a reductionist approach used in neurocognitive study and practice. This method allows researchers and clinicians to decompose the high-order feature called 'cognition' into less complex information processing units in order to identify patterns of impairment that can be associated with a certain disease, process, or toxin. Hence, the description of major cognitive domains - memory, executive functions, attention, language, and visual-spatial function - affected by a particular toxin can be used to establish a specific cognitive impairment pattern and identify its target areas. This can be achieved by the association between its serum levels and standardized specific neuropsychological tests.

URIC ACID

High uric acid levels in the blood are associated with poorer attention, visual-processing speed, and cognitive flexibility in adolescent survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but not in adult ones2727 Cheung YT, Edelmann MN, Mulrooney DA, Green DM, Chemaitilly W, John N, et al. Uric Acid and Neurocognitive Function in Survivors of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated with Chemotherapy Only. Canc Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25:1259-67.. Increased uric acid in baseline levels was also associated with poorer working memory in a cohort study with cognitively healthy community-dwelling older women2828 Vannorsdall TD, Kueider AM, Carlson MC, Schretlen DJ. Higher baseline serum uric acid is associated with poorer cognition but not rates of cognitive decline in women. Exp Gerontol 2014;60:136-9., as well as with white matter atrophy, poorer information-processing speed, decreased executive functionality2929 Verhaaren BF, Vernooij MW, Dehghan A, Vrooman HA, de Boer R, Hofman A, et al. The relation of uric acid to brain atrophy and cognition: the Rotterdam Scan Study. Neuroepidemiology 2013;41:29-34. and cerebral ischemic burden3030 Schretlen DJ, Inscore AB, Vannorsdall TD, Kraut M, Pearlson GD, Gordon B, et al. Serum uric acid and brain ischemia in normal elderly adults. Neurology 2007;69:1418-23.. It is also associated with faster cognitive decline in visual memory and visuo-construction skill in the baseline levels, although increased serum uric acid over-time was associated with a potential benefit for the attention domain and the processing speed among older men3131 Beydoun MA, Canas JA, Dore GA, Beydoun HA, Rostant OS, Fanelli-Kuczmarski MT, et al. Serum Uric Acid and Its Association with Longitudinal Cognitive Change Among Urban Adults. J Alzheimers Dis 2016;52:1415-30.. The authors of this study determined that this paradoxical situation might be attributed to uric acid antioxidant (primarily in plasma) and oxidant (primarily intracellular) function in neurons3232 Sautin YY, Johnson RJ. Uric acid: the oxidant-antioxidant paradox. Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids 2008;27:608-19.. Aiming to resolve this possibility, Schretlen et al. performed a study that showed an association between uric acid and poor verbal and working memories, even after controlling for confounding factors3333 Schretlen DJ, Inscore AB, Jinnah HA, Rao V, Gordon B, Pearlson GD. Serum uric acid and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. Neuropsychology 2007;21:136-40..

INDOXYL SULPHATE AND P-CRESYL SULPHATE

High serum indoxyl sulphate levels are associated with a poorer executive function in the early stages of CKD, despite the lack of a significant association between p-cresyl sulphate and cognitive impairment3434 Yeh YC, Huang MF, Liang SS, Hwang SJ, Tsai JC, Liu TL, et al. Indoxyl sulfate, not p-cresyl sulfate, is associated with cognitive impairment in early-stage chronic kidney disease. Neurotoxicology 2016;53:148-52..

HOMOCYSTEINE

Increased homocysteine (HCy) levels in the blood are related to greater cognitive and motor impairment, especially regarding frontal-executive function, attention3535 Sachdev PS, Valenzuela MJ, Brodaty H, Wang XL, Looi J, Lorentz L, et al. Homocysteine as a risk factor for cognitive impairment in stroke patients. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2003;15:155-62., verbal memory, fine motor speed3636 Sachdev P, Parslow R, Salonikas C, Lux O, Wen W, Kumar R, et al. Homocysteine and the brain in midadult life: evidence for an increased risk of leukoaraiosis in men. Arch Neurol 2004;61:1369-76., processing speed, episodic memory3737 Narayan SK, Saxby BK, Firbank MJ, O'Brien JT, Harrington F, McKeith IG, et al. Plasma homocysteine and cognitive decline in older hypertensive subjects. Int Psychogeriatr 2011;23:1607-15., visual, spatial and constructional ability, and processing speed3838 Feng L, Ng TP, Chuah L, Niti M, Kua EH. Homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B-12 and cognitive performance in older Chinese adults: findings from the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:1506-12.. High HCy levels impact negatively on task performance that assesses executive functioning3939 Polito L, Poloni TE, Vaccaro R, Abbondanza S, Mangieri M, Davin A, et al. High homocysteine and epistasis between MTHFR and APOE: association with cognitive performance in the elderly. Exp Gerontol 2016;76:9-16.,4040 Yeh YC, Huang MF, Hwang SJ, Tsai JC, Liu TL, Hsiao SM, et al. Association of homocysteine level and vascular burden and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults with chronic kidney disease. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2016;31:723-30. and executive-language functioning4141 West RK, Beeri MS, Schmeidler J, Mitchell DB, Carlisle KR, Angelo G, et al. Homocysteine and cognitive function in very elderly nondemented subjects. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2011;19:673-7.. The impact of HCy on memory is controversial: while some studies have shown none, others have reported poorer memory, motor speed, dexterity, and visuo-spatial function with higher HCy levels4242 Schafer JH, Glass TA, Bolla KI, Mintz M, Jedlicka AE, Schwartz BS. Homocysteine and cognitive function in a population-based study of older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 2005;53:381-8.. Executive functions and verbal expression4343 Hooshmand B, Solomon A, Kåreholt I, Rusanen M, Hänninen T, Leiviskä J, et al. Associations between serum homocysteine, holotranscobalamin, folate and cognition in the elderly: a longitudinal study. J Intern Med 2012;271:204-12., attention, and visuoperception and construction4444 van Raamt AF, Kalmijn S, Mali WP, van Zandvoort MJ, van der Graaf Y; SMART Study Group. Homocysteine level and cognitive function in patients with arterial disease: the second manifestations of ARTerial Disease Study. J Am Geriatr Soc 2006;54:575-9. are also impaired by HCy. In another study, HCy was found to be significantly inversely correlated with attention, and delayed but not immediate memory recall4545 Agrawal A, Ilango K, Singh PK, Karmakar D, Singh GP, Kumari R, et al. Age-dependent levels of plasma homocysteine and cognitive performance. Behav Brain Res 2015;283:139-44.. When assessing memory, the mixed results found might suggest a more specific subcomponent impairment of this core cognitive domain. There is a significant positive correlation between HCy and interleukin (IL)-6 levels4545 Agrawal A, Ilango K, Singh PK, Karmakar D, Singh GP, Kumari R, et al. Age-dependent levels of plasma homocysteine and cognitive performance. Behav Brain Res 2015;283:139-44..

INTERLEUKIN 1-β

There is some evidence relating IL-1β to aging processes in the hippocampus, cognitive impairment in multiple domains, and to Alzheimer disease4646 Forlenza OV, Diniz BS, Talib LL, Mendonça VA, Ojopi EB, Gattaz WF, et al. Increased serum IL-1beta level in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2009;28:507-12.. IL-1β also impairs spatial learning and memory in animal model studies4747 Palin K, Bluthé RM, Verrier D, Tridon V, Dantzer R, Lestage J. Interleukin-1beta mediates the memory impairment associated with a delayed type hypersensitivity response to bacillus Calmette-Guérin in the rat hippocampus. Brain Behav Immun 2004;18:223-30.,4848 Cibelli M, Fidalgo AR, Terrando N, Ma D, Monaco C, Feldmann M, et al. Role of interleukin-1beta in postoperative cognitive dysfunction. Ann Neurol 2010;68:360-8.: higher IL-1β levels hamper the consolidation processes of contextual fear conditioning and have a particular effect in the rat dorsal hippocampus4747 Palin K, Bluthé RM, Verrier D, Tridon V, Dantzer R, Lestage J. Interleukin-1beta mediates the memory impairment associated with a delayed type hypersensitivity response to bacillus Calmette-Guérin in the rat hippocampus. Brain Behav Immun 2004;18:223-30., which could be explained by the cytokine's interference with hippocampal long-term potentiation4949 Vereker E, Campbell V, Roche E, McEntee E, Lynch MA. Lipopolysaccharide inhibits long-term potentiation in the rat dentate gyrus by activating caspase-1. J Biol Chem 2000;275:26252-8..

INTERLEUKIN 6

Higher IL-6 levels are associated with poorer executive function5050 Meyers CA, Albitar M, Estey E. Cognitive impairment, fatigue, and cytokine levels in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. Cancer 2005;104:788-93., aging processes, and degeneration of GABAergic interneurons, which are essential for normal information processing, encoding, and retrieval in the hippocampus and the cortex5151 Dugan LL, Ali SS, Shekhtman G, Roberts AJ, Lucero J, Quick KL, et al. IL-6 mediated degeneration of forebrain GABAergic interneurons and cognitive impairment in aged mice through activation of neuronal NADPH oxidase. PLoS One 2009;4:e5518.. IL-6 levels also correlate inversely with performance in tests assessing auditory recognition memory, attention/working memory, and executive function, but surprisingly not with general memory5252 Marsland AL, Petersen KL, Sathanoori R, Muldoon MF, Neumann SA, Ryan C, et al. Interleukin-6 covaries inversely with cognitive performance among middle-aged community volunteers. Psychosom Med 2006;68:895-903.. This cytokine is also associated with poorer executive function in African Americans, but not in European Americans5353 Windham BG, Simpson BN, Lirette S, Bridges J, Bielak L, Peyser PA, et al. Associations between inflammation and cognitive function in African Americans and European Americans. J Am Geriatr Soc 2014;62:2303-10., with worse executive, attentional, and memory function, independent of cardiovascular disease and risk factors5454 Mooijaart SP, Sattar N, Trompet S, Lucke J, Stott DJ, Ford I, et al.; PROSPER Study Group. Circulating interleukin-6 concentration and cognitive decline in old age: the PROSPER study. J Intern Med 2013;274:77-85., and with low performance in memory tests5555 Grassi-Oliveira R, Bauer ME, Pezzi JC, Teixeira AL, Brietzke E. Interleukin-6 and verbal memory in recurrent major depressive disorder. Neuro Endocrinol Lett 2011;32:540-4..

PARATHYROID HORMONE

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) crosses the blood-brain barrier5656 Joborn C, Hetta J, Niklasson F, Rastad J, Wide L, Agren H, et al. Cerebrospinal fluid calcium, parathyroid hormone, and monoamine and purine metabolites and the blood-brain barrier function in primary hyperparathyroidism. Psychoneuroendocrinology 1991;16:311-22. and has a wide receptor distribution in the central nervous system5757 Weaver DR, Deeds JD, Lee K, Segre GV. Localization of parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) and PTH/PTHrP receptor mRNAs in rat brain. Brain Res Mol Brain Res 1995;28:296-310., which probably explains why alterations in calcium metabolism and, consequently, in the serum ionized calcium level (the main regulator of PTH), also impact brain function. A study has found significant negative associations between serum PTH levels and working memory capacity, and the speed of information processing5858 Jorde R, Waterloo K, Saleh F, Haug E, Svartberg J. Neuropsychological function in relation to serum parathyroid hormone and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. The Tromsø study. J Neurol 2006;253:464-70.. A 2015 systematic review concluded that, despite mixed results, there is the suggestion of a link between PTH high serum levels and increased odds of poor cognition or dementia, although the evidence available offers weak support5959 Lourida I, Thompson-Coon J, Dickens CM, Soni M, Kuźma E, Kos K, et al. Parathyroid hormone, cognitive function and dementia: a systematic review. PLoS One 2015;10:e0127574.. In this way, studies that conclusively differentiate the effects of PTH from those of the metabolites it modulates (e.g., calcium) are still necessary.

HEMODIALYSIS AND THE COGNITIVE DOMAINS

Evidence about the effectiveness of dialysis in reducing CKD-CI is extremely relevant when considering it as a treatment at the first signals of CI. Although dialysis causes great morbidity and is a nuisance to the patient, an untreated CKD-CI for a long period will lower the patient's quality of life and may result in increased periods of hospitalization and a higher risk of mortality2626 Watanabe K, Watanabe T, Nakayama M. Cerebro-renal interactions: impact of uremic toxins on cognitive function. Neurotoxicology 2014;44:184-93.. This is a very relevant topic because of the high prevalence of CKD-CI88 Bugnicourt JM, Godefroy O, Chillon JM, Choukroun G, Massy ZA. Cognitive disorders and dementia in CKD: the neglected kidney-brain axis. J Am Soc Nephrol 2013;24:353-63., mainly among those older than 55 years6060 O'Lone E, Connors M, Masson P, Wu S, Kelly PJ, Gillespie D, et al. Cognition in People With End-Stage Kidney Disease Treated With Hemodialysis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Am J Kidney Dis 2016;67:925-35..

The association of CKD with the impairment of target cognitive domains is now being elucidated. People treated with HD have significantly lower cognitive test scores than the general population in all the domains evaluated (orientation and attention, memory, language, construction and motor function, conceptualization and reasoning, executive function, and global cognition) except for one (perception), as concluded by a systematic review and meta-analysis of 42 randomized controlled trials, and both cohort and cross-sectional studies. Tests assessing orientation and attention, memory, and executive function scored the poorest in HD patients compared to the general population. However, compared to chronic kidney disease patients not undergoing dialysis, limited evidence suggests that HD patients may perform better in memory and attention6060 O'Lone E, Connors M, Masson P, Wu S, Kelly PJ, Gillespie D, et al. Cognition in People With End-Stage Kidney Disease Treated With Hemodialysis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Am J Kidney Dis 2016;67:925-35..

A cohort of Dutch CKD patients performed the worst in questions that demanded memory and attention, and presented a low verbal fluency. They were born before 1979 and had started chronic renal replacement therapy at age 0-14 years between 1972 and 1992. However, this study6161 Groothoff JW, Grootenhuis M, Dommerholt A, Gruppen MP, Offringa M, Heymans HS. Impaired cognition and schooling in adults with end stage renal disease since childhood. Arch Dis Child 2002;87:380-5. made use of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; therefore, the cognitive domains could not be evaluated by individual tests. The authors concluded that the long duration of dialysis would enhance CI, a condition that could not be reversed even after renal transplantation, and that end-stage renal disease in childhood is associated with CKD-CI and impaired educational attainment levels in adulthood.

Starosta and colleagues6262 Starosta RT, Vidor MV, Rizzi L, Marques F, Roriz-Cruz M. Haemodialysis improves uraemic patients' cognition: a pilot study. Alzheimer Dement Cogn Neurol 2016;1:1-3., in a pilot study, matched CKD patients' cognition before HD with measurements taken after the beginning of the sessions. The results suggest that HD is an effective treatment for CKD-CI, even though cognition is not fully recovered to the level of a non-CKD patient (i.e. CKD-CI persisted, but was less severe). Cognitive domains were not assessed individually in this study. In another study, Schneider and colleagues6363 Schneider SM, Malecki AK, Müller K, Schönfeld R, Girndt M, Mohr P, et al. Effect of a single dialysis session on cognitive function in CKD5D patients: a prospective clinical study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2015;30:1551-9. concluded that a single dialysis session (with testing performed 1 hour before and 19 hours after dialysis) improved the results in memory, attention, and executive functions. Despite the improvement, the performance of dialytic patients in post-dialysis assessments was significantly smaller than that of non-CKD patients, which highlights the lingering aspect of CKD-CI.

Interestingly, executive functions, memory, and attention are the cognitive domains most affected by the UTs that we researched in our review. This convergent pattern of cognitive domain impairments underlines the role and importance of these toxins in the genesis of CKD-CI. The fact that HD treatment ameliorates memory and attention, in comparison with non-dialyzed CKD patients, indicates that these removed UTs may affect some brain areas differently than others. We suggest that it would be beneficial for further studies to collect biochemical data about the uremic state of each patient and that cognition be assessed by domain-specific tests. In this way, specific factors may be matched more precisely with their impact on cognition, which would provide a better understanding of the mechanism of each toxic molecule and the cause of the impairment in each cognitive domain.

All these findings, together with the continual description of alterations in discrete domains, provide a finer resolution of the pattern of cognitive impairment found in uremic patients. Ultimately, these efforts have clinical significance as uremic encephalopathy needs to be distinguished from neurodegenerative diseases, delirium, cerebro-vascular diseases, and non-related psychiatric disorders, especially in a population of CKD patients, who exhibit multiple comorbidities many times.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

The main strength of our review is the extensive and comprehensive search on the topic of interest, which allowed us to gather a significant amount of data regarding the interaction between uremic toxins and specific cognitive domains. To the best of our knowledge, no study has reviewed such a relationship to such depth. We have also provided a strong body of evidence linking at least three UTs to three specific cognitive domains.

There are various limitations with this review: (1) the articles' biases were not systematically revised or graded after being selected for the review. Studies presenting patients with comorbidities (which make it difficult to attribute an isolated correlation between a UT and CKD) or with cognitive domain measurements made via telephone, were excluded in the selection process; (2) only articles in English were included; (3) only the PubMed database was searched; and (4) the data synthesis was not based directly on the tests used, but rather on their interpretations.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher levels of uric acid, HCy and IL-6 are significantly associated with lower cognitive performance in executive, attentional, and memory domains. These same three cognitive domains are the most impaired in patients under HD treatment; conversely, among the cognitive domains, they present the greatest performance improvement after HD treatment, according to our literature review. This suggests a protective effect derived from the removal of uremic toxins, and highlights the important role of these three compounds in the onset of CKD-CI. In fact, when studying uremic encephalopathy, it is important to keep in mind that different uremic toxins may have different effects upon different parts of the brain, which reflects the alterations in distinct cognitive domains. This is important because it broadens the possibility of future symptomatic treatment based on the specific features a patient might present; it also helps to shed light on the biochemical background underlying each function. We hope that proper understanding of the pathophysiology of uremic encephalopathy will improve the diagnosis of cognitive impairment (which will become more clearly recognizable with the use of tests) and allow for appropriate treatment and care.

As occurred in the 20th century with cancer - a single entity that was found to be composed of a myriad of different mechanisms and types - cognitive dysfunction is bound to, in the present century, suffer the same process of deep understanding and enlightenment, since each of its facets is indeed composed of unique, distinct, underlying neural substrate. Furthermore, it is possible that each dysfunction may need a differential, mechanism-based approach in order to be tackled. With this review, we aimed to present a panorama of the intricate relationship between renal failure's uremic syndrome and the loss of full cognitive function - as both are issues to be solved per se - and to provide a window to the even most mysterious and intriguing ways of the brain.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    09 Aug 2018
  • Date of issue
    Jan-Mar 2019

History

  • Received
    17 Jan 2018
  • Accepted
    14 May 2018
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