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St-Onge F, Chapleau M, Breitner JCS, Villeneuve S, Pichet Binette A. Tau accumulation and its spatial progression across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. Brain Commun 2024; 6:fcae031. [PMID: 38410618 PMCID: PMC10896475 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The accumulation of tau abnormality in sporadic Alzheimer's disease is believed typically to follow neuropathologically defined Braak staging. Recent in-vivo PET evidence challenges this belief, however, as accumulation patterns for tau appear heterogeneous among individuals with varying clinical expressions of Alzheimer's disease. We, therefore, sought a better understanding of the spatial distribution of tau in the preclinical and clinical phases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and its association with cognitive decline. Longitudinal tau-PET data (1370 scans) from 832 participants (463 cognitively unimpaired, 277 with mild cognitive impairment and 92 with Alzheimer's disease dementia) were obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Among these, we defined thresholds of abnormal tau deposition in 70 brain regions from the Desikan atlas, and for each group of regions characteristic of Braak staging. We summed each scan's number of regions with abnormal tau deposition to form a spatial extent index. We then examined patterns of tau pathology cross-sectionally and longitudinally and assessed their heterogeneity. Finally, we compared our spatial extent index of tau uptake with a temporal meta-region of interest-a commonly used proxy of tau burden-assessing their association with cognitive scores and clinical progression. More than 80% of amyloid-beta positive participants across diagnostic groups followed typical Braak staging, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Within each Braak stage, however, the pattern of abnormality demonstrated significant heterogeneity such that the overlap of abnormal regions across participants averaged less than 50%, particularly in persons with mild cognitive impairment. Accumulation of tau progressed more rapidly among cognitively unimpaired and participants with mild cognitive impairment (1.2 newly abnormal regions per year) compared to participants with Alzheimer's disease dementia (less than 1 newly abnormal region per year). Comparing the association of tau pathology and cognitive performance our spatial extent index was superior to the temporal meta-region of interest for identifying associations with memory in cognitively unimpaired individuals and explained more variance for measures of executive function in patients with mild cognitive impairments and Alzheimer's disease dementia. Thus, while participants broadly followed Braak stages, significant individual regional heterogeneity of tau binding was observed at each clinical stage. Progression of the spatial extent of tau pathology appears to be fastest in cognitively unimpaired and persons with mild cognitive impairment. Exploring the spatial distribution of tau deposits throughout the entire brain may uncover further pathological variations and their correlation with cognitive impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric St-Onge
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC H4H 1R3, Canada
| | - Marianne Chapleau
- Faculty of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
| | - John C S Breitner
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC H4H 1R3, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1Y2, Canada
| | - Sylvia Villeneuve
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC H4H 1R3, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1Y2, Canada
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Alexa Pichet Binette
- Clinical Memory Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö 205 02, Sweden
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Morris JC, Weiner M, Xiong C, Beckett L, Coble D, Saito N, Aisen PS, Allegri R, Benzinger TLS, Berman SB, Cairns NJ, Carrillo MC, Chui HC, Chhatwal JP, Cruchaga C, Fagan AM, Farlow M, Fox NC, Ghetti B, Goate AM, Gordon BA, Graff-Radford N, Day GS, Hassenstab J, Ikeuchi T, Jack CR, Jagust WJ, Jucker M, Levin J, Massoumzadeh P, Masters CL, Martins R, McDade E, Mori H, Noble JM, Petersen RC, Ringman JM, Salloway S, Saykin AJ, Schofield PR, Shaw LM, Toga AW, Trojanowski JQ, Vöglein J, Weninger S, Bateman RJ, Buckles VD. Autosomal dominant and sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease share a common in vivo pathophysiology. Brain 2022; 145:3594-3607. [PMID: 35580594 PMCID: PMC9989348 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The extent to which the pathophysiology of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease corresponds to the pathophysiology of 'sporadic' late onset Alzheimer's disease is unknown, thus limiting the extrapolation of study findings and clinical trial results in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease to late onset Alzheimer's disease. We compared brain MRI and amyloid PET data, as well as CSF concentrations of amyloid-β42, amyloid-β40, tau and tau phosphorylated at position 181, in 292 carriers of pathogenic variants for Alzheimer's disease from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, with corresponding data from 559 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Imaging data and CSF samples were reprocessed as appropriate to guarantee uniform pipelines and assays. Data analyses yielded rates of change before and after symptomatic onset of Alzheimer's disease, allowing the alignment of the ∼30-year age difference between the cohorts on a clinically meaningful anchor point, namely the participant age at symptomatic onset. Biomarker profiles were similar for both autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease and late onset Alzheimer's disease. Both groups demonstrated accelerated rates of decline in cognitive performance and in regional brain volume loss after symptomatic onset. Although amyloid burden accumulation as determined by PET was greater after symptomatic onset in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease than in late onset Alzheimer's disease participants, CSF assays of amyloid-β42, amyloid-β40, tau and p-tau181 were largely overlapping in both groups. Rates of change in cognitive performance and hippocampal volume loss after symptomatic onset were more aggressive for autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease participants. These findings suggest a similar pathophysiology of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease and late onset Alzheimer's disease, supporting a shared pathobiological construct.
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Affiliation(s)
- John C Morris
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Michael Weiner
- Department of Radiology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Chengjie Xiong
- Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Laurel Beckett
- Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California; Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Dean Coble
- Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Naomi Saito
- Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California; Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Paul S Aisen
- Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Ricardo Allegri
- Department of Cognitive Neurology, Neuropsychology and Neuropsychiatry, Institute for Neurological Research (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Tammie L S Benzinger
- Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Sarah B Berman
- Department of Neurology and Clinical and Translational Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Nigel J Cairns
- College of Medicine and Health and the Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | - Helena C Chui
- Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Jasmeer P Chhatwal
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Carlos Cruchaga
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Anne M Fagan
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Martin Farlow
- Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Nick C Fox
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease and UK Dementia Research Institute, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Bernardino Ghetti
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Alison M Goate
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Brian A Gordon
- Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | | | - Gregory S Day
- Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA
| | - Jason Hassenstab
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Takeshi Ikeuchi
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan
| | | | - William J Jagust
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Mathias Jucker
- Cell Biology of Neurological Diseases Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Johannes Levin
- DZNE Munich, Munich Cluster of Systems Neurology (SyNergy) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
| | - Parinaz Massoumzadeh
- Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Colin L Masters
- Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Ralph Martins
- Sir James McCusker Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit, Edith Cowan University, Nedlands, Australia
| | - Eric McDade
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Hiroshi Mori
- Department of Neuroscience, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka City, Japan
| | - James M Noble
- Department of Neurology, Taub Institute for Research on Aging Brain, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - John M Ringman
- Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Stephen Salloway
- Department of Neurology, Butler Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, 02906, USA
| | - Andrew J Saykin
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences and the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Peter R Schofield
- Neuroscience Research Australia and School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Leslie M Shaw
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Arthur W Toga
- Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Institute on Aging, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Jonathan Vöglein
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | | | - Randall J Bateman
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Virginia D Buckles
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
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