Spatial patterns of tau deposition are associated with amyloid, ApoE, sex, and cognitive decline in older adults.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Purpose
The abnormal deposition of tau begins before the onset of clinical symptoms and seems to target specific brain networks. The aim of this study is to identify the spatial patterns of tau deposition in cognitively normal older adults and assess whether they are related to amyloid-β (Aβ), APOE, sex, and longitudinal cognitive decline.Methods
We included 114 older adults with cross-sectional flortaucipir (FTP) and Pittsburgh Compound-B PET in addition to longitudinal cognitive testing. A voxel-wise independent component analysis was applied to FTP images to identify the spatial patterns of tau deposition. We then assessed whether tau within these patterns differed by Aβ status, APOE genotype, and sex. Linear mixed effects models were built to test whether tau in each component predicted cognitive decline. Finally, we ordered the spatial components based on the frequency of high tau deposition to model tau spread.Results
We found 10 biologically plausible tau patterns in the whole sample. There was greater tau in medial temporal, occipital, and orbitofrontal components in Aβ-positive compared with Aβ-negative individuals; in the parahippocampal component in ε3ε3 compared with ε2ε3 carriers; and in temporo-parietal and anterior frontal components in women compared with men. Higher tau in temporal and frontal components predicted longitudinal cognitive decline in memory and executive functions, respectively. Tau deposition was most frequently observed in medial temporal and ventral cortical areas, followed by lateral and primary areas.Conclusions
These findings suggest that the spatial patterns of tau in asymptomatic individuals are clinically meaningful and are associated with Aβ, APOE ε2ε3, sex and cognitive decline. These patterns could be used to predict the regional spread of tau and perform in vivo tau staging in older adults.
SUBMITTER: Pereira JB
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7338820 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) population, we examined (1) cross-sectional relationships between amyloid deposition, hypometabolism, and cognition, and (2) associations between amyloid and hypometabolism measurements and longitudinal cognitive measurements.We examined associations between mean cortical florbetapir uptake, mean (18) F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) within a set of predefined regions, and Alzhiemer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-cog) performance in 426 ADNI participants (126 normal, 162 early mild cognitive impairment [EMCI], 85 late MCI [LMCI], 53 Alzheimer disease [AD] patients). For a subset of these (76 normal, 81 LMCI) we determined whether florbetapir and FDG-PET were associated with retrospective decline in longitudinal ADAS-cog measurements.Twenty-nine percent of normal subjects, 43% of EMCI patients, 62% of LMCI patients, and 77% of AD patients were categorized as florbetapir positive. Florbetapir was negatively associated with concurrent FDG and ADAS-cog in both MCI groups. In longitudinal analyses, florbetapir-positive subjects in both normal and LMCI groups had greater ongoing ADAS-cog decline than those who were florbetapir negative. However, in normal subjects, florbetapir positivity was associated with greater ADAS-cog decline than FDG, whereas in LMCI, FDG positivity was associated with greater decline than florbetapir.Although both hypometabolism and ?-amyloid (A?) deposition are detectable in normal subjects and all diagnostic groups, A? showed greater associations with cognitive decline in normal participants. In view of the minimal cognitive deterioration overall in this group, this suggests that amyloid deposition has an early and subclinical impact on cognition that precedes metabolic changes. At moderate and later stages of disease (LMCI/AD), hypometabolism becomes more pronounced and more closely linked to ongoing cognitive decline.
| S-EPMC3786871 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The development of amyloid imaging compounds has allowed in vivo imaging of amyloid deposition. In this study, we examined the spatial patterns of amyloid deposition throughout the brain using Pittsburgh Compound Blue ((11)C-PiB) positron emission tomography data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. We used a new methodology that allowed us to approximate spatial patterns of the temporal progression of amyloid plaque deposition from cross-sectional data. Our results are consistent with patterns of progression known from autopsy studies, with frontal and precuneus regions affected early and occipital and sensorimotor cortices affected later in disease progression--here, disease progression means lower-to-higher total amyloid burden. Furthermore, we divided participants into subgroups based on longitudinal change in memory performance, and demonstrated significantly different spatial patterns of the estimated progression of amyloid deposition between these subgroups. Our results indicate that the spatial pattern of amyloid deposition is related to cognitive performance and may be more informative than a biomarker reflecting total amyloid burden, the use of which is the current practice. This finding has broad implications for our understanding of the relationship between cognitive decline/resilience and amyloid deposition, as well as for the use of amyloid imaging as a biomarker in research and clinical applications.
| S-EPMC3893024 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVES:Amyloid-beta (A?) and tau pathologies are commonly observed among clinically normal older individuals at postmortem and can now be detected with in vivo neuroimaging. The association and interaction of these proteinopathies with prospective cognitive decline in normal aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains to be fully elucidated. METHODS:One hundred thirty-seven older individuals (age = 76.3 ± 6.22 years) participating in the Harvard Aging Brain Study underwent A? (11 C-Pittsburgh compound B) and tau (18 F-flortaucipir) positron emission tomography (PET) with prospective neuropsychological assessments following PET imaging (mean number of cognitive visits = 2.8 ± 1.1). Tau and A? PET measures were assessed in regions of interest (ROIs) as well as vertex-wise map analyses. Cognitive change was evaluated with Memory and Executive Function composites. RESULTS:Higher levels of A? and tau were both associated with greater memory decline, but not with change in executive function. Higher cortical A? was associated with higher tau levels in all ROIs, independent of age, and very elevated levels of tau were observed primarily in clinically normal with elevated A?. A significant interaction between tau and A? was observed in both ROI and map-level analyses, such that rapid prospective memory decline was observed in participants who had high levels of both pathologies. INTERPRETATION:Our results are consistent with the supposition that both A? and tau are necessary for memory decline in the preclinical stages of AD. These findings may be relevant for disambiguating aging and early cognitive manifestations of AD, and to inform secondary prevention trials in preclinical AD. Ann Neurol 2019;00:1-3 ANN NEUROL 2019;85:181-193.
| S-EPMC6402593 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeTo examine associations between the APOE-ε2 and APOE-ε4 alleles and core Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathological hallmarks as measured by amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau PET in older individuals without dementia.MethodsWe analyzed data from 462 ADNI participants without dementia who underwent Aβ ([18F]florbetapir or [18F]florbetaben) and tau ([18F]flortaucipir) PET, structural MRI, and cognitive testing. Employing APOE-ε3 homozygotes as the reference group, associations between APOE-ε2 and APOE-ε4 carriership with global Aβ PET and regional tau PET measures (entorhinal cortex (ERC), inferior temporal cortex, and Braak-V/VI neocortical composite regions) were investigated using linear regression models. In a subset of 156 participants, we also investigated associations between APOE genotype and regional tau accumulation over time using linear mixed models. Finally, we assessed whether Aβ mediated the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between APOE genotype and tau.ResultsCompared to APOE-ε3 homozygotes, APOE-ε2 carriers had lower global Aβ burden (βstd [95% confidence interval (CI)]: - 0.31 [- 0.45, - 0.16], p = 0.034) but did not differ on regional tau burden or tau accumulation over time. APOE-ε4 participants showed higher Aβ (βstd [95%CI]: 0.64 [0.42, 0.82], p < 0.001) and tau burden (βstd range: 0.27-0.51, all p < 0.006). In mediation analyses, APOE-ε4 only retained an Aβ-independent effect on tau in the ERC. APOE-ε4 showed a trend towards increased tau accumulation over time in Braak-V/VI compared to APOE-ε3 homozygotes (βstd [95%CI]: 0.10 [- 0.02, 0.18], p = 0.11), and this association was fully mediated by baseline Aβ.ConclusionOur data suggest that the established protective effect of the APOE-ε2 allele against developing clinical AD is primarily linked to resistance against Aβ deposition rather than tau pathology.
| S-EPMC8175302 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be an early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, other pathologic entities [e.g., cerebrovascular disease, Lewy body disease, LATE (limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy)], or mixed pathologies, with concomitant AD- and non-AD pathology being particularly common, albeit difficult to identify, in living MCI patients. The National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) A/T/(N) [β-Amyloid/Tau/(Neurodegeneration)] AD research framework, which classifies research participants according to three binary biomarkers [β-amyloid (A+/A-), tau (T+/T-), and neurodegeneration (N+/N-)], provides an indirect means of identifying such cases. Individuals with A+T-(N+) MCI are thought to have both AD pathologic change, given the presence of β-amyloid, and non-AD pathophysiology, given neurodegeneration without tau, because in typical AD it is tau accumulation that is most tightly linked to neuronal injury and cognitive decline. Thus, in A+T-(N+) MCI (hereafter referred to as "mismatch MCI" for the tau-neurodegeneration mismatch), non-AD pathology is hypothesized to drive neurodegeneration and symptoms, because β-amyloid, in the absence of tau, likely reflects a preclinical stage of AD. We compared a group of individuals with mismatch MCI to groups with A+T+(N+) MCI (or "prodromal AD") and A-T-(N+) MCI (or "neurodegeneration-only MCI") on cross-sectional and longitudinal cognition and neuroimaging characteristics. β-amyloid and tau status were determined by CSF assays, while neurodegeneration status was based on hippocampal volume on MRI. Overall, mismatch MCI was less "AD-like" than prodromal AD and generally, with some exceptions, more closely resembled the neurodegeneration-only group. At baseline, mismatch MCI had less episodic memory loss compared to prodromal AD. Longitudinally, mismatch MCI declined more slowly than prodromal AD across all included cognitive domains, while mismatch MCI and neurodegeneration-only MCI declined at comparable rates. Prodromal AD had smaller baseline posterior hippocampal volume than mismatch MCI, and whole brain analyses demonstrated cortical thinning that was widespread in prodromal AD but largely restricted to the medial temporal lobes (MTLs) for the mismatch and neurodegeneration-only MCI groups. Longitudinally, mismatch MCI had slower rates of volume loss than prodromal AD throughout the MTLs. Differences in cross-sectional and longitudinal cognitive and neuroimaging measures between mismatch MCI and prodromal AD may reflect disparate underlying pathologic processes, with the mismatch group potentially being driven by non-AD pathologies on a background of largely preclinical AD. These findings suggest that β-amyloid status alone in MCI may not reveal the underlying driver of symptoms with important implications for enrollment in clinical trials and prognosis.
| S-EPMC8207301 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveWe aimed to whether the abnormally high amyloid-β (Aβ) level in the brain among apparently healthy elders is related with subtle cognitive deficits and/or accelerated cognitive decline.MethodsA total of 116 dementia-free participants (mean age 84.5 years) of the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project completed 18F-Florbetaben PET imaging. Positive or negative cerebral Aβ deposition was assessed visually. Quantitative cerebral Aβ burden was calculated as the standardized uptake value ratio in pre-established regions of interest using cerebellar cortex as the reference region. Cognition was determined using a neuropsychological battery and selected tests scores were combined into four composite scores (memory, language, executive/speed, and visuospatial) using exploratory factor analysis. We examined the relationship between cerebral Aβ level and longitudinal cognition change up to 20 years before the PET scan using latent growth curve models, controlling for age, education, ethnicity, and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype.ResultsPositive reading of Aβ was found in 41 of 116 (35%) individuals. Cognitive scores at scan time was not related with Aβ. All cognitive scores declined over time. Aβ positive reading (B = -0.034, p = 0.02) and higher Aβ burden in temporal region (B = -0.080, p = 0.02) were associated with faster decline in executive/speed. Stratified analyses showed that higher Aβ deposition was associated with faster longitudinal declines in mean cognition, language, and executive/speed in African-Americans or in APOE ε4 carriers, and with faster memory decline in APOE ε4 carriers. The associations remained significant after excluding mild cognitive impairment participants.ConclusionsHigh Aβ deposition in healthy elders was associated with decline in executive/speed in the decade before neuroimaging, and the association was observed primarily in African-Americans and APOE ε4 carriers. Our results suggest that measuring cerebral Aβ may give us important insights into the cognitive profile in the years prior to the scan in cognitively normal elders.
| S-EPMC4519341 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to examine sex differences in tau distribution across the brain of older adults, using positron emission tomography (PET), and investigate how these differences might associate with cognitive trajectories.MethodsParticipants were 343 clinically normal individuals (women, 58%; 73.8 [8.5] years) and 55 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI; women, 38%; 76.9 [7.3] years) from the Harvard Aging Brain Study and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We examined 18 F-Flortaucipir (FTP)-positron emission tomography (PET) signal across 41 cortical and subcortical regions of interest (ROIs). Linear regression models estimated the effect of sex on FTP-signal for each ROI after adjusting for age and cohort. We also examined interactions between sex*Aβ-PET positive / negative (+ / -) and sex*apolipoprotein ε4 (APOEε4) status. Linear mixed models estimated the moderating effect of sex on the relationship between a composite of sex-differentiated tau ROIs and cognitive decline.ResultsWomen showed significantly higher FTP-signals than men across multiple regions of the cortical mantle (p < 0.007). β-amyloid (Aβ)-moderated sex differences in tau signal were localized to medial and inferio-lateral temporal regions (p < 0.007); Aβ + women exhibited greater FTP-signal than other groups. APOEε4-moderated sex differences in FTP-signal were only found in the lateral occipital lobe. Women with higher FTP-signals in composite ROI exhibited faster cognitive decline than men (p = 0.04).InterpretationTau vulnerability in women is not just limited to the medial temporal lobe and significantly contributed to greater risk of faster cognitive decline. Interactive effects of sex and Aβ were predominantly localized in the temporal lobe, however, sex differences in extra-temporal tau highlights the possibility of accelerated tau proliferation in women with the onset of clinical symptomatology. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:921-932.
| S-EPMC7581543 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There are conflicting results regarding how APOE genotype, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), influences spatial and longitudinal amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition and its impact on the selection of biomarker cut-points. In our study, we sought to determine the impact of APOE genotype on cross-sectional and longitudinal florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid measures and its impact in classification of patients and interpretation of clinical cohort results. We included 1,019 and 1,072 Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative participants with cerebrospinal fluid Aβ1 - 42 and florbetapir PET values, respectively. 623 of these subjects had a second florbetapir PET scans two years after the baseline visit. We evaluated the effect of APOE genotype on Aβ distribution pattern, pathological biomarker cut-points, cross-sectional clinical associations with Aβ load, and longitudinal Aβ deposition rate measured using florbetapir PET scans. 1) APOEɛ4 genotype influences brain amyloid deposition pattern; 2) APOEɛ4 genotype does not modify Aβ biomarker cut-points estimated using unsupervised mixture modeling methods if white matter and brainstem references are used (but not when cerebellum is used as a reference); 3) findings of large differences in Aβ biomarker value differences based on APOE genotype are due to increased probability of having AD neuropathology and are most significant in mild cognitive impairment subjects; and 4) APOE genotype and age (but not gender) were associated with increased Aβ deposition rate. APOEɛ4 carrier status affects rate and location of brain Aβ deposition but does not affect choice of biomarker cut-points if adequate references are selected for florbetapir PET processing.
| S-EPMC8634544 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction:This study applies a novel algorithm to longitudinal amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to identify age-heterogeneous amyloid trajectory groups, estimate the age and duration (chronicity) of amyloid positivity, and investigate chronicity in relation to cognitive decline and tau burden. Methods:Cognitively unimpaired participants (n = 257) underwent one to four amyloid PET scans (Pittsburgh Compound B, PiB). Group-based trajectory modeling was applied to participants with longitudinal scans (n = 171) to identify and model amyloid trajectory groups, which were combined with Bayes theorem to estimate age and chronicity of amyloid positivity. Relationships between chronicity, cognition, clinical progression, and tau PET (MK-6240) were investigated using regression models. Results:Chronicity explained more heterogeneity in amyloid burden than age and binary amyloid status. Chronicity was associated with faster cognitive decline, increased risk of abnormal cognition, and higher entorhinal tau. Discussion:Amyloid chronicity provides unique information about cognitive decline and neurofibrillary tangle development and may be useful to investigate preclinical Alzheimer's disease.
| S-EPMC7085284 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Accumulation of ?-amyloid (A?) in the brain is associated with memory decline in healthy individuals as a prelude to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Genetic factors may moderate this decline. We examined the role of apolipoprotein E (?4 carrier[?4(+)], ?4 non-carrier[?4(-)]) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF(Val/Val), BDNF(Met)) in the extent to which they moderate A?-related memory decline. Healthy adults (n=333, Mage=70 years) enrolled in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle study underwent A? neuroimaging. Neuropsychological assessments were conducted at baseline, 18-, 36- and 54-month follow-ups. A? positron emission tomography neuroimaging was used to classify participants as A?(-) or A?(+). Relative to A?(-)?4(-), A?(+)?4(+) individuals showed significantly faster rates of cognitive decline over 54 months across all domains (d=0.40-1.22), while A?(+)?4(-) individuals showed significantly faster decline only on verbal episodic memory (EM). There were no differences in rates of cognitive change between A?(-)?4(-) and A?(-)?4(+) groups. Among A?(+) individuals, ?4(+)/BDNF(Met) participants showed a significantly faster rate of decline on verbal and visual EM, and language over 54 months compared with ?4(-)/BDNF(Val/Val) participants (d=0.90-1.02). At least two genetic loci affect the rate of A?-related cognitive decline. A?(+)?4(+)/BDNF(Met) individuals can expect to show clinically significant memory impairment after 3 years, whereas A?(+)?4(+)/BDNF(Val/Val) individuals can expect a similar degree of impairment after 10 years. Little decline over 54 months was observed in the A?(-) and A?(+) ?4(-) groups, irrespective of BDNF status. These data raise important prognostic issues in managing preclinical AD, and should be considered in designing secondary preventative clinical trials.
| S-EPMC4759101 | biostudies-literature