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Vilor‐Tejedor N, Genius P, Rodríguez‐Fernández B, Minguillón C, Sadeghi I, González‐Escalante A, Crous‐Bou M, Suárez‐Calvet M, Grau‐Rivera O, Brugulat‐Serrat A, Sánchez‐Benavides G, Esteller M, Fauria K, Molinuevo JL, Navarro A, Gispert JD. Genetic characterization of the ALFA study: Uncovering genetic profiles in the Alzheimer's continuum. Alzheimers Dement 2024; 20:1703-1715. [PMID: 38088508 PMCID: PMC10984507 DOI: 10.1002/alz.13537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/16/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION In 2013, the ALzheimer's and FAmilies (ALFA) project was established to investigate pathophysiological changes in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to foster research on early detection and preventive interventions. METHODS We conducted a comprehensive genetic characterization of ALFA participants with respect to neurodegenerative/cerebrovascular diseases, AD biomarkers, brain endophenotypes, risk factors and aging biomarkers. We placed particular emphasis on amyloid/tau status and assessed gender differences. Multiple polygenic risk scores were computed to capture different aspects of genetic predisposition. We additionally compared AD risk in ALFA to that across the full disease spectrum from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). RESULTS Results show that the ALFA project has been successful at establishing a cohort of cognitively unimpaired individuals at high genetic predisposition of AD. DISCUSSION It is, therefore, well-suited to study early pathophysiological changes in the preclinical AD continuum. Highlights Prevalence of ε4 carriers in ALzheimer and FAmilies (ALFA) is higher than in the general European population The ALFA study is highly enriched in Alzheimer's disease (AD) genetic risk factors beyond APOE AD genetic profiles in ALFA are similar to clinical groups along the continuum ALFA has succeeded in establishing a cohort of cognitively unimpaired individuals at high genetic AD risk ALFA is well suited to study pathogenic events/early pathophysiological changes in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Vilor‐Tejedor
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)The Barcelona Institute for Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
- Department of Clinical GeneticsErasmus University Medical CenterRotterdamNetherlands
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
| | - Patricia Genius
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)The Barcelona Institute for Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
| | - Blanca Rodríguez‐Fernández
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)The Barcelona Institute for Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
| | - Carolina Minguillón
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
| | - Iman Sadeghi
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)The Barcelona Institute for Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
| | - Armand González‐Escalante
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Department of Medicine and Life SciencesUniversitat Pompeu FabraBarcelonaSpain
| | - Marta Crous‐Bou
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Department of EpidemiologyHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. School of Public Health 2BostonMassachusettsUSA
- Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO)‐Bellvitge Biomedical Research Center (IDIBELL)Hospital Duran i ReynalsBarcelonaSpain
| | - Marc Suárez‐Calvet
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
- Servei de NeurologiaHospital del MarBarcelonaSpain
| | - Oriol Grau‐Rivera
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
- Servei de NeurologiaHospital del MarBarcelonaSpain
| | - Anna Brugulat‐Serrat
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
- Global Brain Health InstituteSan FranciscoCaliforniaUSA
| | - Gonzalo Sánchez‐Benavides
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
| | - Manel Esteller
- Cancer Epigenetics, Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC)BarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Cáncer (CIBERONC), Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
- Integrated Pharmacology and Systems NeurosciencesIMIM‐Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA)BarcelonaSpain
- Physiological Sciences DepartmentSchool of Medicine and Health SciencesUniversity of Barcelona (UB)BarcelonaSpain
| | - Karine Fauria
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBER‐FES)Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIMadridSpain
| | - José Luis Molinuevo
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Experimental Medicine, H. Lundbeck A/SKøbenhavnDenmark
| | - Arcadi Navarro
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)The Barcelona Institute for Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
- Department of Medicine and Life SciencesUniversitat Pompeu FabraBarcelonaSpain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA)BarcelonaSpain
- Department of Experimental and Health SciencesInstitute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC‐UPF)BarcelonaSpain
| | - Juan Domingo Gispert
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)Pasqual Maragall FoundationBarcelonaSpain
- Neurosciences Programme, IMIM ‐ Hospital del Mar Medical Research InstituteBarcelonaSpain
- Department of Medicine and Life SciencesUniversitat Pompeu FabraBarcelonaSpain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red BioingenieríaBiomateriales y Nanomedicina. Instituto de Salud carlos IIIMadridSpain
- Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC)MadridSpain
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Mak E, Dounavi ME, Operto G, Ziukelis ET, Jones PS, Low A, Swann P, Newton C, Muniz Terrera G, Malhotra P, Koychev I, Falcon C, Mackay C, Lawlor B, Naci L, Wells K, Ritchie C, Ritchie K, Su L, Gispert JD, O’Brien JT. APOE ɛ4 exacerbates age-dependent deficits in cortical microstructure. Brain Commun 2024; 6:fcad351. [PMID: 38384997 PMCID: PMC10881196 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcad351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 10/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024] Open
Abstract
The apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele is the primary genetic risk factor for the sporadic type of Alzheimer's disease. However, the mechanisms by which apolipoprotein E ɛ4 are associated with neurodegeneration are still poorly understood. We applied the Neurite Orientation Dispersion Model to characterize the effects of apolipoprotein ɛ4 and its interactions with age and education on cortical microstructure in cognitively normal individuals. Data from 1954 participants were included from the PREVENT-Dementia and ALFA (ALzheimer and FAmilies) studies (mean age = 57, 1197 non-carriers and 757 apolipoprotein E ɛ4 carriers). Structural MRI datasets were processed with FreeSurfer v7.2. The Microstructure Diffusion Toolbox was used to derive Orientation Dispersion Index maps from diffusion MRI datasets. Primary analyses were focused on (i) the main effects of apolipoprotein E ɛ4, and (ii) the interactions of apolipoprotein E ɛ4 with age and education on lobar and vertex-wise Orientation Dispersion Index and implemented using Permutation Analysis of Linear Models. There were apolipoprotein E ɛ4 × age interactions in the temporo-parietal and frontal lobes, indicating steeper age-dependent Orientation Dispersion Index changes in apolipoprotein E ɛ4 carriers. Steeper age-related Orientation Dispersion Index declines were observed among apolipoprotein E ɛ4 carriers with lower years of education. We demonstrated that apolipoprotein E ɛ4 worsened age-related Orientation Dispersion Index decreases in brain regions typically associated with atrophy patterns of Alzheimer's disease. This finding also suggests that apolipoprotein E ɛ4 may hasten the onset age of dementia by accelerating age-dependent reductions in cortical Orientation Dispersion Index.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elijah Mak
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Maria-Eleni Dounavi
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Grégory Operto
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona 08005, Spain
| | - Elina T Ziukelis
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Peter Simon Jones
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SZ, UK
| | - Audrey Low
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Peter Swann
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Coco Newton
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | | | - Paresh Malhotra
- Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College, London W12 0NN, UK
| | - Ivan Koychev
- Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Carles Falcon
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona 08005, Spain
- IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona 08003, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Madrid 28029, Spain
| | - Clare Mackay
- Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Brian Lawlor
- Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin, Dublin D02 PX31, Ireland
| | - Lorina Naci
- Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin, Dublin D02 PX31, Ireland
| | - Katie Wells
- Centre for Dementia Prevention, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Craig Ritchie
- Centre for Dementia Prevention, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Karen Ritchie
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1061 Neuropsychiatrie, Montpellier 34093, France
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Montpellier, Montpellier 34093, France
| | - Li Su
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Juan Domingo Gispert
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona 08005, Spain
- IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona 08003, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Madrid 28029, Spain
| | - John T O’Brien
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
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Dai WZ, Liu L, Zhu MZ, Lu J, Ni JM, Li R, Ma T, Zhu XC. Morphological and Structural Network Analysis of Sporadic Alzheimer's Disease Brains Based on the APOE4 Gene. J Alzheimers Dis 2023; 91:1035-1048. [PMID: 36530087 DOI: 10.3233/jad-220877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an increasingly common type of dementia. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is a strong risk factor for AD. OBJECTIVE Here, we explored alterations in grey matter structure (GMV) and networks in AD, as well as the effects of the APOEɛ4 allele on neuroimaging regions based on structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). METHODS All subjects underwent an sMRI scan. GMV and cortical thickness were calculated using voxel-based morphological analysis, and structural networks were constructed based on graph theory analysis to compare differences between AD and normal controls. RESULTS The volumes of grey matter in the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, right limbic lobe, right frontal lobe, left anterior cingulate gyrus, and bilateral olfactory cortex of patients with AD were significantly decreased. The cortical thickness in patients with AD was significantly reduced in the left lateral occipital lobe, inferior parietal lobe, orbitofrontal region, precuneus, superior parietal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, pars opercularis gyrus, insular gyrus, superior marginal gyrus, bilateral fusiform gyrus, and superior frontal gyrus. In terms of local properties, there were significant differences between the AD and control groups in these areas, including the right bank, right temporalis pole, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, right transverse temporal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, and left parahippocampal gyrus. CONCLUSION There were significant differences in the morphological and structural covariate networks between AD patients and healthy controls under APOEɛ4 allele effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Zhuo Dai
- Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Lu Liu
- Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Meng-Zhuo Zhu
- Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Jing Lu
- Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Jian-Ming Ni
- Radiology Department, Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Rong Li
- Department of Pharmacy, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Tao Ma
- Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Xi-Chen Zhu
- Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.,Department of Neurology, Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China
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Wu J, Su Y, Zhu W, Mallak NJ, Lepore N, Reiman EM, Caselli RJ, Thompson PM, Chen K, Wang Y. Improved Prediction of Amyloid-β and Tau Burden Using Hippocampal Surface Multivariate Morphometry Statistics and Sparse Coding. J Alzheimers Dis 2023; 91:637-651. [PMID: 36463452 PMCID: PMC9940990 DOI: 10.3233/jad-220812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau protein tangles in the brain are the defining 'A' and 'T' hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and together with structural atrophy detectable on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans as one of the neurodegenerative ('N') biomarkers comprise the "ATN framework" of AD. Current methods to detect Aβ/tau pathology include cerebrospinal fluid (invasive), positron emission tomography (PET; costly and not widely available), and blood-based biomarkers (promising but mainly still in development). OBJECTIVE To develop a non-invasive and widely available structural MRI-based framework to quantitatively predict the amyloid and tau measurements. METHODS With MRI-based hippocampal multivariate morphometry statistics (MMS) features, we apply our Patch Analysis-based Surface Correntropy-induced Sparse coding and max-pooling (PASCS-MP) method combined with the ridge regression model to individual amyloid/tau measure prediction. RESULTS We evaluate our framework on amyloid PET/MRI and tau PET/MRI datasets from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Each subject has one pair consisting of a PET image and MRI scan, collected at about the same time. Experimental results suggest that amyloid/tau measurements predicted with our PASCP-MP representations are closer to the real values than the measures derived from other approaches, such as hippocampal surface area, volume, and shape morphometry features based on spherical harmonics. CONCLUSION The MMS-based PASCP-MP is an efficient tool that can bridge hippocampal atrophy with amyloid and tau pathology and thus help assess disease burden, progression, and treatment effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianfeng Wu
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Yi Su
- Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Wenhui Zhu
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Negar Jalili Mallak
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Natasha Lepore
- CIBORG Lab, Department of Radiology Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Paul M. Thompson
- Imaging Genetics Center, Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, USA
| | - Kewei Chen
- Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Yalin Wang
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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Structural covariance changes in major cortico-basal ganglia and thalamic networks in amyloid-positive patients with white matter hyperintensities. Neurobiol Aging 2022; 117:117-127. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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