Amyloid Deposition Is Greater in Cerebral Gyri than in Cerebral Sulci with Worsening Clinical Diagnosis Across the Alzheimer’s Disease Spectrum

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Lucas M. Walden ◽  
Song Hu ◽  
Anant Madabhushi ◽  
Jeffrey W. Prescott ◽  

Background: Histopathologic studies have demonstrated differential amyloid-β (Aβ) burden between cortical sulci and gyri in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with sulci having a greater Aβ burden. Objective: To characterize Aβ deposition in the sulci and gyri of the cerebral cortex in vivo among subjects with normal cognition (NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD, and to evaluate if these differences could improve discrimination between diagnostic groups. Methods: T1-weighted 3T MR and florbetapir (amyloid) positron emission tomography (PET) data were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). T1 images were segmented and the cortex was separated into sulci/gyri based on pial surface curvature measurements. T1 images were registered to PET images and regional standardized uptake value ratios (SUVr) were calculated. A linear mixed effects model was used to analyze the relationship between clinical variables and amyloid PET SUVr measurements in the sulci/gyri. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to define amyloid positivity. Logistic models were used to evaluate predictive performance of clinical diagnosis using amyloid PET SUVr measurements in sulci/gyri. Results: 719 subjects were included: 272 NC, 315 MCI, and 132 AD. Gyral and sulcal Aβ increased with worsening cognition, however there was a greater increase in gyral Aβ. Females had a greater gyral and sulcal Aβ burden. Focusing on sulcal and gyral Aβ did not improve predictive power for diagnostic groups. Conclusion: While there were significant differences in Aβ deposition in cerebral sulci and gyri across the AD spectrum, these differences did not translate into improved prediction of diagnosis. Females were found to have greater gyral and sulcal Aβ burden.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Luca Sacchi ◽  
Tiziana Carandini ◽  
Giorgio Giulio Fumagalli ◽  
Anna Margherita Pietroboni ◽  
Valeria Elisa Contarino ◽  
...  

Background: Association between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-amyloid-β (Aβ)42 and amyloid-PET measures is inconstant across the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) spectrum. However, they are considered interchangeable, along with Aβ 42/40 ratio, for defining ‘Alzheimer’s Disease pathologic change’ (A+). Objective: Herein, we further characterized the association between amyloid-PET and CSF biomarkers and tested their agreement in a cohort of AD spectrum patients. Methods: We include ed 23 patients who underwent amyloid-PET, MRI, and CSF analysis showing reduced levels of Aβ 42 within a 365-days interval. Thresholds used for dichotomization were: Aβ 42 <  640 pg/mL (Aβ 42+); pTau >  61 pg/mL (pTau+); and Aβ 42/40 <  0.069 (ADratio+). Amyloid-PET scans were visually assessed and processed by four pipelines (SPMCL, SPMAAL, FSGM, FSWC). Results: Different pipelines gave highly inter-correlated standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) (rho = 0.93–0.99). The most significant findings were: pTau positive correlation with SPMCL SUVR (rho = 0.56, p = 0.0063) and Aβ 42/40 negative correlation with SPMCL and SPMAAL SUVRs (rho = –0.56, p = 0.0058; rho = –0.52, p = 0.0117 respectively). No correlations between CSF-Aβ 42 and global SUVRs were observed. In subregion analysis, both pTau and Aβ 42/40 values significantly correlated with cingulate SUVRs from any pipeline (R2 = 0.55–0.59, p <  0.0083), with the strongest associations observed for the posterior/isthmus cingulate areas. However, only associations observed for Aβ 42/40 ratio were still significant in linear regression models. Moreover, combining pTau with Aβ 42 or using Aβ 42/40, instead of Aβ 42 alone, increased concordance with amyloid-PET status from 74% to 91% based on visual reads and from 78% to 96% based on Centiloids. Conclusion: We confirmed that, in the AD spectrum, amyloid-PET measures show a stronger association and a better agreement with CSF-Aβ 42/40 and secondarily pTau rather than Aβ 42 levels.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui-Qi Zhang ◽  
Shi-Dong Chen ◽  
Xue-Ning Shen ◽  
Yu-Xiang Yang ◽  
Jia-Ying Lu ◽  
...  

Background: The recent developed PET ligands for amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau allow these two neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to be mapped and quantified in vivo and to be examined in relation to cognition. Objective: To assess the associations among Aβ, tau, and cognition in non-demented subjects. Methods: Three hundred eighty-nine elderly participants without dementia from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative underwent tau and amyloid PET scans. Cross-sectional comparisons and longitudinal analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between Aβ and tau accumulation. The correlations between biomarkers of both pathologies and performance in memory and executive function were measured. Results: Increased amyloid-PET retention was associated with greater tau-PET retention in widespread cortices. We observed a significant tau increase in the temporal composite regions of interest over 24 months in Aβ+ but not Aβ– subjects. Finally, tau-PET retention but not amyloid-PET retention significantly explained the variance in memory and executive function. Higher level of tau was associated with greater longitudinal memory decline. Conclusion: These findings suggested PET-detectable Aβ plaque pathology may be a necessary antecedent for tau-PET signal elevation. Greater tau-PET retention may demonstrate poorer cognition and predict prospective memory decline in non-demented subjects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 1129-1136
Author(s):  
Meng-Shan Tan ◽  
Yu-Xiang Yang ◽  
Hui-Fu Wang ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Chen-Chen Tan ◽  
...  

Background: Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles are two neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which both can be visualized in vivo using PET radiotracers, opening new opportunities to study disease mechanisms. Objective: Our study investigated 11 non-PET factors in 5 categories (including demographic, clinical, genetic, MRI, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) features) possibly affecting PET amyloid and tau status to explore the relationships between amyloid and tau pathology, and whether these features had a different association with amyloid and tau status. Methods: We included 372 nondemented elderly from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort. All underwent PET amyloid and tau analysis simultaneously, and were grouped into amyloid/tau quadrants based on previously established abnormality cut points. We examined the associations of above selected features with PET amyloid and tau status using a multivariable logistic regression model, then explored whether there was an obvious correlation between the significant features and PET amyloid or tau levels. Results: Our results demonstrated that PET amyloid and tau status were differently affected by patient features, and CSF biomarker features provided most significant values associating PET findings. CSF Aβ42/40 was the most important factor affecting amyloid PET status, and negatively correlated with amyloid PET levels. CSF pTau could significantly influence both amyloid and tau PET status. Besides CSF pTau and Aβ42, APOE ɛ4 allele status and Mini-Mental State Examination scores also could influence tau PET status, and significantly correlated with tau PET levels. Conclusion: Our results support that tau pathology possibly affected by Aβ-independent factors, implicating the importance of tau pathology in AD pathogenesis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumihiko Yasuno ◽  
Hiroyuki Minami

Abstract This study used positron emission tomography to examine whether the seasonal birth effect as an exogenic indicator of early life environmental factors influenced vulnerability to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology in the elderly. We analyzed datasets from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, which included the data for 234 cognitively normal individuals and patients with mild cognitive impairment (n = 115) and AD dementia (n = 38). As an index of amyloid β (Aβ)/tau accumulation, the AV-45/AV-1451-standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) were compared between groups of spring-to-summer births and fall-to-winter births by analysis of covariance. Seasonal birth difference was a good predictor of AV-1451 SUVR. We found that participants with a fall-to-winter birth showed lower AV-1451 SUVRs than those with a spring-to-summer birth, after accounting for the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS) score and other factors that could possibly affect tau accumulation. Our findings showed a vulnerability to tau pathology in participants with a fall-to-winter birth, which may be caused by perinatal or postnatal brain damage due to the risk factors associated with the cold season.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Yi-Wen Bao ◽  
Anson C.M. Chau ◽  
Patrick Ka-Chun Chiu ◽  
Yat Fung Shea ◽  
Joseph S.K. Kwan ◽  
...  

Background: With the more widespread use of 18F-radioligand-based amyloid-β (Aβ) PET-CT imaging, we evaluated Aβ binding and the utility of neocortical 18F-Flutemetamol standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) as a biomarker. Objective: 18F-Flutemetamol SUVR was used to differentiate 1) mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and 2) MCI from other non-AD dementias (OD). Methods: 109 patients consecutively recruited from a University memory clinic underwent clinical evaluation, neuropsychological test, MRI and 18F-Flutemetamol PET-CT. The diagnosis was made by consensus of a panel consisting of 1 neuroradiologist and 2 geriatricians. The final cohort included 13 subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 22 AD, 39 MCI, and 35 OD. Quantitative analysis of 16 region-of-interests made by Cortex ID software (GE Healthcare). Results: The global mean 18F-Flutemetamol SUVR in SCD, MCI, AD, and OD were 0.50 (SD-0.08), 0.53 (SD-0.16), 0.76 (SD-0.10), and 0.56 (SD-0.16), respectively, with SUVR in SCD and MCI and OD being significantly lower than AD. Aβ binding in SCD, MCI, and OD was heterogeneous, being 23%, 38.5%, and 42.9% respectively, as compared to 100% amyloid positivity in AD. Using global SUVR, ROC analysis showed AUC of 0.868 and 0.588 in differentiating MCI from AD and MCI from OD respectively. Conclusion: 18F-Flutemetamol SUVR differentiated MCI from AD with high efficacy (high negative predictive value), but much lower efficacy from OD. The major benefit of the test was to differentiate cognitively impaired patients (either SCD, MCI, or OD) without AD-related-amyloid-pathology from AD in the clinical setting, which was under-emphasized in the current guidelines proposed by Amyloid Imaging Task Force.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu Hsien Lim ◽  
Prameet Kaur ◽  
Emelyne Teo ◽  
Vanessa Yuk Man Lam ◽  
Fangchen Zhu ◽  
...  

The brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients show a decrease in brain mass and a preponderance of extracellular Amyloid-β plaques. These plaques are formed by aggregation of polypeptides that are derived from the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). Amyloid-β plaques are thought to play either a direct or an indirect role in disease progression, however the exact role of aggregation and plaque formation in the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is subject to debate as the biological effects of soluble and aggregated Amyloid-β peptides are difficult to separate in vivo. To investigate the consequences of formation of Amyloid-β oligomers in living tissues, we developed a fluorescently tagged, optogenetic Amyloid-β peptide that oligomerizes rapidly in the presence of blue light. We applied this system to the crucial question of how intracellular Amyloid-β oligomers underlie the pathologies of A. We use Drosophila, C. elegans and D. rerio to show that, although both expression and induced oligomerization of Amyloid-β were detrimental to lifespan and healthspan, we were able to separate the metabolic and physical damage caused by light-induced Amyloid-β oligomerization from Amyloid-β expression alone. The physical damage caused by Amyloid-β oligomers also recapitulated the catastrophic tissue loss that is a hallmark of late AD. We show that the lifespan deficit induced by Amyloid-β oligomers was reduced with Li+ treatment. Our results present the first model to separate different aspects of disease progression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (S5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khazar Ahmadi ◽  
Joana B. Pereira ◽  
David Berron ◽  
Jacob W. Vogel ◽  
Silvia Ingala ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shady Estfanous ◽  
Kylene P. Daily ◽  
Mostafa Eltobgy ◽  
Nicholas P. Deems ◽  
Midhun N. K. Anne ◽  
...  

Autophagy is a proposed route of amyloid-β (Aβ) clearance by microglia that is halted in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), though mechanisms underlying this dysfunction remain elusive. Here, primary microglia from adult AD (5xFAD) mice were utilized to demonstrate that 5xFAD microglia fail to degrade Aβ and express low levels of autophagy cargo receptor NBR1. In 5xFAD mouse brains, we show for the first time that AD microglia express elevated levels of microRNA cluster Mirc1/Mir17-92a, which is known to downregulate autophagy proteins. By in situ hybridization in post-mortem AD human tissue sections, we observed that the Mirc1/Mir17-92a cluster member miR-17 is also elevated in human AD microglia, specifically in the vicinity of Aβ deposits, compared to non-disease controls. We show that NBR1 expression is negatively correlated with expression of miR-17 in human AD microglia via immunohistopathologic staining in human AD brain tissue sections. We demonstrate in healthy microglia that autophagy cargo receptor NBR1 is required for Aβ degradation. Inhibiting elevated miR-17 in 5xFAD mouse microglia improves Aβ degradation, autophagy, and NBR1 puncta formation in vitro and improves NBR1 expression in vivo. These findings offer a mechanism behind dysfunctional autophagy in AD microglia which may be useful for therapeutic interventions aiming to improve autophagy function in AD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (S4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Rodriguez‐Vieitez ◽  
Victor Montal ◽  
Jorge Sepulcre ◽  
Cristina Lois ◽  
Bernard Hanseeuw ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (41) ◽  
pp. 14015-14024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Cao ◽  
Daniel H. Anderson ◽  
Wilson Y. Liang ◽  
Joshua Chou ◽  
Lorena Saelices

The protective effect of transthyretin (TTR) on cellular toxicity of β-amyloid (Aβ) has been previously reported. TTR is a tetrameric carrier of thyroxine in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, the pathogenic aggregation of which causes systemic amyloidosis. However, studies have documented a protective effect of TTR against cellular toxicity of pathogenic Aβ, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. TTR binds Aβ, alters its aggregation, and inhibits its toxicity both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we investigate whether the amyloidogenic ability of TTR and its antiamyloid inhibitory effect are associated. Using protein aggregation and cytotoxicity assays, we found that the dissociation of the TTR tetramer, required for its amyloid pathogenesis, is also necessary to prevent cellular toxicity from Aβ oligomers. These findings suggest that the Aβ-binding site of TTR may be hidden in its tetrameric form. Aided by computational docking and peptide screening, we identified a TTR segment that is capable of altering Aβ aggregation and toxicity, mimicking TTR cellular protection. EM, immune detection analysis, and assessment of aggregation and cytotoxicity revealed that the TTR segment inhibits Aβ oligomer formation and also promotes the formation of nontoxic, nonamyloid amorphous aggregates, which are more sensitive to protease digestion. Finally, this segment also inhibits seeding of Aβ catalyzed by Aβ fibrils extracted from the brain of an Alzheimer's patient. Together, these findings suggest that mimicking the inhibitory effect of TTR with peptide-based therapeutics represents an additional avenue to explore for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.


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