| 1. |
- Cumplido-Mayoral, I., et al.
(författare)
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Biological brain age prediction using machine learning on structural neuroimaging data: Multi-cohort validation against biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration stratified by sex
- 2023
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Ingår i: Elife. - 2050-084X. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brain--age can be inferred from structural neuroimaging and compared to chronological age (brain--age delta) as a marker of biological brain aging. Accelerated aging has been found in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its validation against markers of neurodegeneration and AD is lacking. Here, imaging--derived measures from the UK Biobank dataset (N=22,661) were used to predict brain--age in 2,314 cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals at higher risk of AD and mild cognitive impaired (MCI) patients from four independent cohorts with available biomarker data: ALFA+, ADNI, EPAD, and OASIS. Brain-age delta was associated with abnormal amyloid-ss, more advanced stages (AT) of AD pathology and APOE-e4 status. Brain--age delta was positively associated with plasma neurofilament light, a marker of neurodegeneration, and sex differences in the brain effects of this marker were found. These results validate brain--age delta as a non-invasive marker of biological brain aging in non--demented individuals with abnormal levels of biomarkers of AD and axonal injury.
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| 2. |
- Bruno, D., et al.
(författare)
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The recency ratio assessed by story recall is associated with cerebrospinal fluid levels of neurodegeneration biomarkers
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cortex. - : Elsevier BV. - 0010-9452. ; 159, s. 167-174
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recency refers to the information learned at the end of a study list or task. Recency forgetting, as tracked by the ratio between recency recall in immediate and delayed con-ditions, i.e., the recency ratio (Rr), has been applied to list-learning tasks, demonstrating its efficacy in predicting cognitive decline, conversion to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of neurodegeneration. However, little is known as to whether Rr can be effectively applied to story recall tasks. To address this question, data were extracted from the database of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin -Madison. A total of 212 participants were included in the study. CSF biomarkers were amyloid-beta (Ab) 40 and 42, phosphorylated (p) and total (t) tau, neu-rofilament light (NFL), neurogranin (Ng), and a-synuclein (a-syn). Story Recall was measured with the Logical Memory Test (LMT). We carried out Bayesian regression ana-lyses with Rr, and other LMT scores as predictors; and CSF biomarkers (including the Ab42/ 40 and p-tau/Ab42 ratios) as outcomes. Results showed that models including Rr consis-tently provided best fits with the data, with few exceptions. These findings demonstrate the applicability of Rr to story recall and its sensitivity to CSF biomarkers of neuro-degeneration, and encourage its inclusion when evaluating risk of neurodegeneration with story recall. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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| 3. |
- Cullen, Nicholas C., et al.
(författare)
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Test-retest variability of plasma biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease and its effects on clinical prediction models
- 2023
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Ingår i: Alzheimers & Dementia. - : Wiley. - 1552-5260 .- 1552-5279. ; 19:3, s. 797-806
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- INTRODUCTION The effect of random error on the performance of blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) must be determined before clinical implementation. METHODS We measured test-retest variability of plasma amyloid beta (A beta)42/A beta 40, neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau)217 and simulated effects of this variability on biomarker performance when predicting either cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) A beta status or conversion to AD dementia in 399 non-demented participants with cognitive symptoms. RESULTS Clinical performance was highest when combining all biomarkers. Among single-biomarkers, p-tau217 performed best. Test-retest variability ranged from 4.1% (A beta 42/A beta 40) to 25% (GFAP). This variability reduced the performance of the biomarkers (approximate to Delta AUC [area under the curve] -1% to -4%) with the least effects on models with p-tau217. The percent of individuals with unstable predicted outcomes was lowest for the multi-biomarker combination (14%). DISCUSSION Clinical prediction models combining plasma biomarkers-particularly p-tau217-exhibit high performance and are less effected by random error. Individuals with unstable predicted outcomes ("gray zone") should be recommended for further tests.
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| 4. |
- Deming, Y., et al.
(författare)
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Neuropathology-based APOE genetic risk score better quantifies Alzheimer's risk
- 2023
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Ingår i: Alzheimers & Dementia. - : Wiley. - 1552-5260 .- 1552-5279. ; 19:8, s. 3406-3416
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- IntroductionApolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon 4-carrier status or epsilon 4 allele count are included in analyses to account for the APOE genetic effect on Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, this does not account for protective effects of APOE epsilon 2 or heterogeneous effect of epsilon 2, epsilon 3, and epsilon 4 haplotypes. MethodsWe leveraged results from an autopsy-confirmed AD study to generate a weighted risk score for APOE (APOE-npscore). We regressed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau biomarkers on APOE variables from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP), Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (WADRC), and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). ResultsThe APOE-npscore explained more variance and provided a better model fit for all three CSF measures than APOE epsilon 4-carrier status and epsilon 4 allele count. These findings were replicated in ADNI and observed in subsets of cognitively unimpaired (CU) participants. DiscussionThe APOE-npscore reflects the genetic effect on neuropathology and provides an improved method to account for APOE in AD-related analyses.
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| 5. |
- Dong, R. C., et al.
(författare)
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CSF metabolites associated with biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease pathology
- 2023
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. - 1663-4365. ; 15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- IntroductionMetabolomics technology facilitates studying associations between small molecules and disease processes. Correlating metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with Alzheimer's disease (AD) CSF biomarkers may elucidate additional changes that are associated with early AD pathology and enhance our knowledge of the disease.MethodsThe relative abundance of untargeted metabolites was assessed in 161 individuals from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention. A metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) was conducted between 269 CSF metabolites and protein biomarkers reflecting brain amyloidosis, tau pathology, neuronal and synaptic degeneration, and astrocyte or microglial activation and neuroinflammation. Linear mixed-effects regression analyses were performed with random intercepts for sample relatedness and repeated measurements and fixed effects for age, sex, and years of education. The metabolome-wide significance was determined by a false discovery rate threshold of 0.05. The significant metabolites were replicated in 154 independent individuals from then Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Mendelian randomization was performed using genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms from a CSF metabolites genome-wide association study.ResultsMetabolome-wide association study results showed several significantly associated metabolites for all the biomarkers except A & beta;42/40 and IL-6. Genetic variants associated with metabolites and Mendelian randomization analysis provided evidence for a causal association of metabolites for soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2), amyloid & beta; (A & beta;40), & alpha;-synuclein, total tau, phosphorylated tau, and neurogranin, for example, palmitoyl sphingomyelin (d18:1/16:0) for sTREM2, and erythritol for A & beta;40 and & alpha;-synuclein.DiscussionThis study provides evidence that CSF metabolites are associated with AD-related pathology, and many of these associations may be causal.
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| 6. |
- Dong, R. C., et al.
(författare)
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Identification of plasma metabolites associated with modifiable risk factors and endophenotypes reflecting Alzheimer's disease pathology
- 2023
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Ingår i: European Journal of Epidemiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0393-2990 .- 1573-7284.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modifiable factors can influence the risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and serve as targets for intervention; however, the biological mechanisms linking these factors to AD are unknown. This study aims to identify plasma metabolites associated with modifiable factors for AD, including MIND diet, physical activity, smoking, and caffeine intake, and test their association with AD endophenotypes to identify their potential roles in pathophysiological mechanisms. The association between each of the 757 plasma metabolites and four modifiable factors was tested in the wisconsin registry for Alzheimer's prevention cohort of initially cognitively unimpaired, asymptomatic middle-aged adults. After Bonferroni correction, the significant plasma metabolites were tested for association with each of the AD endophenotypes, including twelve cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, reflecting key pathophysiologies for AD, and four cognitive composite scores. Finally, causal mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate possible mediation effects. Analyses were performed using linear mixed-effects regression. A total of 27, 3, 23, and 24 metabolites were associated with MIND diet, physical activity, smoking, and caffeine intake, respectively. Potential mediation effects include beta-cryptoxanthin in the association between MIND diet and preclinical Alzheimer cognitive composite score, hippurate between MIND diet and immediate learning, glutamate between physical activity and CSF neurofilament light, and beta-cryptoxanthin between smoking and immediate learning. Our study identified several plasma metabolites that are associated with modifiable factors. These metabolites can be employed as biomarkers for tracking these factors, and they provide a potential biological pathway of how modifiable factors influence the human body and AD risk.
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| 7. |
- Gallagher, R. L., et al.
(författare)
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Neuroimaging of tissue microstructure as a marker of neurodegeneration in the AT(N) framework: defining abnormal neurodegeneration and improving prediction of clinical status
- 2023
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Ingår i: Alzheimer's Research & Therapy. - 1758-9193. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundAlzheimer's disease involves accumulating amyloid (A) and tau (T) pathology, and progressive neurodegeneration (N), leading to the development of the AD clinical syndrome. While several markers of N have been proposed, efforts to define normal vs. abnormal neurodegeneration based on neuroimaging have been limited. Sensitive markers that may account for or predict cognitive dysfunction for individuals in early disease stages are critical.MethodsParticipants (n = 296) defined on A and T status and spanning the AD-clinical continuum underwent multi-shell diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging to generate Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) metrics, which were tested as markers of N. To better define N, we developed age- and sex-adjusted robust z-score values to quantify normal and AD-associated (abnormal) neurodegeneration in both cortical gray matter and subcortical white matter regions of interest. We used general logistic regression with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC) analysis to test whether NODDI metrics improved diagnostic accuracy compared to models that only relied on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) A and T status (alone and in combination).ResultsUsing internal robust norms, we found that NODDI metrics correlate with worsening cognitive status and that NODDI captures early, AD neurodegenerative pathology in the gray matter of cognitively unimpaired, but A/T biomarker-positive, individuals. NODDI metrics utilized together with A and T status improved diagnostic prediction accuracy of AD clinical status, compared with models using CSF A and T status alone.ConclusionUsing a robust norms approach, we show that abnormal AD-related neurodegeneration can be detected among cognitively unimpaired individuals. Metrics derived from diffusion-weighted imaging are potential sensitive markers of N and could be considered for trial enrichment and as outcomes in clinical trials. However, given the small sample sizes, the exploratory nature of the work must be acknowledged.
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| 8. |
- Heston, M. B., et al.
(författare)
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Gut inflammation associated with age and Alzheimer's disease pathology: a human cohort study
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Age-related disease may be mediated by low levels of chronic inflammation ("inflammaging"). Recent work suggests that gut microbes can contribute to inflammation via degradation of the intestinal barrier. While aging and age-related diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD) are linked to altered microbiome composition and higher levels of gut microbial components in systemic circulation, the role of intestinal inflammation remains unclear. To investigate whether greater gut inflammation is associated with advanced age and AD pathology, we assessed fecal samples from older adults to measure calprotectin, an established marker of intestinal inflammation which is elevated in diseases of gut barrier integrity. Multiple regression with maximum likelihood estimation and Satorra-Bentler corrections were used to test relationships between fecal calprotectin and clinical diagnosis, participant age, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of AD pathology, amyloid burden measured using 11C-Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography (PiB PET) imaging, and performance on cognitive tests measuring executive function and verbal learning and recall. Calprotectin levels were elevated in advanced age and were higher in participants diagnosed with amyloid-confirmed AD dementia. Additionally, among individuals with AD dementia, higher calprotectin was associated with greater amyloid burden as measured with PiB PET. Exploratory analyses indicated that calprotectin levels were also associated with cerebrospinal fluid markers of AD, and with lower verbal memory function even among cognitively unimpaired participants. Taken together, these findings suggest that intestinal inflammation is linked with brain pathology even in the earliest disease stages. Moreover, intestinal inflammation may exacerbate the progression toward AD.
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| 9. |
- Johnson, S. C., et al.
(författare)
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Identifying clinically useful biomarkers in neurodegenerative disease through a collaborative approach: the NeuroToolKit
- 2023
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Ingår i: Alzheimers Research & Therapy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1758-9193. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex and heterogeneous disease, which requires reliable biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring disease activity. Preanalytical protocol and technical variability associated with biomarker immunoassays makes comparability of biomarker data across multiple cohorts difficult. This study aimed to compare cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker results across independent cohorts, including participants spanning the AD continuum.Methods Measured on the NeuroToolKit (NTK) prototype panel of immunoassays, 12 CSF biomarkers were evaluated from three cohorts (ALFA+, Wisconsin, and Abby/Blaze). A correction factor was applied to biomarkers found to be affected by preanalytical procedures (amyloid-beta(1-42), amyloid-beta(1-40), and alpha-synuclein), and results between cohorts for each disease stage were compared. The relationship between CSF biomarker concentration and cognitive scores was evaluated.Results Biomarker distributions were comparable across cohorts following correction. Correlations of biomarker values were consistent across cohorts, regardless of disease stage. Disease stage differentiation was highest for neurofilament light (NfL), phosphorylated tau, and total tau, regardless of the cohort. Correlation between biomarker concentration and cognitive scores was comparable across cohorts, and strongest for NfL, chitinase-3-like protein-1 (YKL40), and glial fibrillary acidic protein.Discussion The precision of the NTK enables merging of biomarker datasets, after correction for preanalytical confounders. Assessment of multiple cohorts is crucial to increase power in future studies into AD pathogenesis.
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| 10. |
- Nair, A. K., et al.
(författare)
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Impact of asthma on the brain: evidence from diffusion MRI, CSF biomarkers and cognitive decline
- 2023
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Ingår i: Brain Communications. - 2632-1297. ; 5:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chronic systemic inflammation increases the risk of neurodegeneration, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Part of the challenge in reaching a nuanced understanding is the presence of multiple risk factors that interact to potentiate adverse consequences. To address modifiable risk factors and mitigate downstream effects, it is necessary, although difficult, to tease apart the contribution of an individual risk factor by accounting for concurrent factors such as advanced age, cardiovascular risk, and genetic predisposition. Using a case-control design, we investigated the influence of asthma, a highly prevalent chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, on brain health in participants recruited to the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (31 asthma patients, 186 non-asthma controls, aged 45-90 years, 62.2% female, 92.2% cognitively unimpaired), a sample enriched for parental history of Alzheimer's disease. Asthma status was determined using detailed prescription information. We employed multi-shell diffusion weighted imaging scans and the three-compartment neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging model to assess white and gray matter microstructure. We used cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers to examine evidence of Alzheimer's disease pathology, glial activation, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. We evaluated cognitive changes over time using a preclinical Alzheimer cognitive composite. Using permutation analysis of linear models, we examined the moderating influence of asthma on relationships between diffusion imaging metrics, CSF biomarkers, and cognitive decline, controlling for age, sex, and cognitive status. We ran additional models controlling for cardiovascular risk and genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease, defined as a carrier of at least one apolipoprotein E (APOE) & epsilon;4 allele. Relative to controls, greater Alzheimer's disease pathology (lower amyloid-& beta;(42)/amyloid-& beta;(40), higher phosphorylated-tau-181) and synaptic degeneration (neurogranin) biomarker concentrations were associated with more adverse white matter metrics (e.g. lower neurite density, higher mean diffusivity) in patients with asthma. Higher concentrations of the pleiotropic cytokine IL-6 and the glial marker S100B were associated with more salubrious white matter metrics in asthma, but not in controls. The adverse effects of age on white matter integrity were accelerated in asthma. Finally, we found evidence that in asthma, relative to controls, deterioration in white and gray matter microstructure was associated with accelerated cognitive decline. Taken together, our findings suggest that asthma accelerates white and gray matter microstructural changes associated with aging and increasing neuropathology, that in turn, are associated with more rapid cognitive decline. Effective asthma control, on the other hand, may be protective and slow progression of cognitive symptoms. Nair et al. report that changes in white matter microstructure associated with aging and increasing concentrations of CSF biomarkers of synaptic degeneration and Alzheimer's disease pathology are accelerated in patients with asthma, relative to controls. Further, these deteriorations in brain health were associated with steeper cognitive decline in asthma.
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