Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects millions of people and is a major rising problem in health care worldwide. Recent research suggests that AD could have different subtypes, presenting differences in how the disease develops. Characterizing those subtypes could be key to deepen the understanding of this complex disease. In this paper, we used a multivariate, non-supervised clustering method over blood-based markers to find subgroups of patients defined by distinctive blood marker profiles. Our analysis on ADNI database identified 4 possible subgroups, each with a different blood profile. More importantly, we show that subgroups with different profiles have a different relationship between brain phenotypes detected in magnetic resonance imaging and disease condition.

This research was partially funded by the “Fundacio´ La Marato´ de TV3” (n˚20154031). Data collection and sharing for this project was funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health Grant U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (Department of Defense award number W81XWH-12-2-0012). Data collection and sharing for this project was also funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Metabolomics Consortium (National Institute on Aging R01AG046171, RF1AG051550 and 3U01AG024904-09S4). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.