RESUMO
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer disease (AD). Efforts in the field mainly focus on familial forms of disease (fFTDs), while studies of the genetic etiology of sporadic FTD (sFTD) have been less common. In the current work, we analyzed 4,685 sFTD cases and 15,308 controls looking for common genetic determinants for sFTD. We found a cluster of variants at the MAPT (rs199443; p = 2.5 × 10-12, OR = 1.27) and APOE (rs6857; p = 1.31 × 10-12, OR = 1.27) loci and a candidate locus on chromosome 3 (rs1009966; p = 2.41 × 10-8, OR = 1.16) in the intergenic region between RPSA and MOBP, contributing to increased risk for sFTD through effects on expression and/or splicing in brain cortex of functionally relevant in-cis genes at the MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci. The association with the MAPT (H1c clade) and RPSA-MOBP loci may suggest common genetic pleiotropy across FTD and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci) and across FTD, AD, Parkinson disease (PD), and cortico-basal degeneration (CBD) (MAPT locus). Our data also suggest population specificity of the risk signals, with MAPT and APOE loci associations mainly driven by Central/Nordic and Mediterranean Europeans, respectively. This study lays the foundations for future work aimed at further characterizing population-specific features of potential FTD-discriminant APOE haplotype(s) and the functional involvement and contribution of the MAPT H1c haplotype and RPSA-MOBP loci to pathogenesis of sporadic forms of FTD in brain cortex.
Assuntos
Apolipoproteínas E , Demência Frontotemporal , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Estudo de Associação Genômica Ampla , Proteínas tau , Humanos , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Proteínas tau/genética , Apolipoproteínas E/genética , Masculino , Feminino , Idoso , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único , Loci Gênicos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Proteínas da MielinaRESUMO
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating motor neuron disease (MND) that shares a common clinical, genetic and pathologic spectrum with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). It is highly heterogeneous in its presentation and features. Up to 50% of patients with MND develop cognitive-behavioural symptoms during the course of the disease, meeting criteria for FTD in 10%-15% of cases. In the absence of a precise biomarker, neuropathology is still a valuable tool to understand disease nosology, reach a definite diagnostic confirmation and help define specific subgroups of patients with common phenotypic, genetic and biomarker profiles. However, few neuropathological series have been published, and the frequency of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) in MND is difficult to estimate. In this work we describe a large clinicopathological series of MND patients, analysing the frequency of concurrent FTLD changes and trying to define specific subgroups of patients based on their clinical, genetic and pathological characteristics. We performed an observational, retrospective, multicentre case study. We included all cases meeting neuropathological criteria for MND from the Neurological Tissue Bank of the FRCB-IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic Barcelona Biobank between 1994 and 2022, regardless of their last clinical diagnosis. While brain donation is encouraged in all patients, it is performed in very few, and representativeness of the cohort might not be precise for all patients with MND. We retrospectively reviewed clinical and neuropathological data and describe the main clinical, genetic and pathogenic features, comparing neuropathologic groups between MND with and without FTLD changes and aiming to define specific subgroups. We included brain samples from 124 patients, 44 of whom (35.5%) had FTLD neuropathologic features (i.e. FTLD-MND). Pathologic TDP-43 aggregates were present in 93.6% of the cohort and were more extensive (higher Brettschneider stage) in those with concurrent FTLD (P < 0.001). Motor symptom onset was more frequent in the bulbar region in FTLD-MND cases than in those with isolated MND (P = 0.023), with no differences in survival. We observed a better clinicopathological correlation in the MND group than in the FTLD-MND group (93.8% versus 61.4%; P < 0.001). Pathogenic genetic variants were more common in the FTLD-MND group, especially C9orf72. We describe a frequency of FTLD of 35.5% in our series of neuropathologically confirmed cases of MND. The FTLD-MND spectrum is highly heterogeneous in all aspects, especially in patients with FTLD, in whom it is particularly difficult to define specific subgroups. In the absence of definite biomarkers, neuropathology remains a valuable tool for a definite diagnosis, increasing our knowledge in disease nosology.
Assuntos
Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal , Doença dos Neurônios Motores , Humanos , Masculino , Feminino , Idoso , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal/patologia , Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal/genética , Estudos Retrospectivos , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/patologia , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/genética , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/patologia , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/genética , Demência Frontotemporal/patologia , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Encéfalo/patologia , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismoRESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Between 5% and 10% of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases have a family history of the disease, 30% of which do not have an identifiable underlying genetic cause after a comprehensive study of the known ALS-related genes. Based on a significantly increased incidence of ALS in a small geographical region from Spain, the aim of this work was to identify novel ALS-related genes in ALS cases with negative genetic testing. METHODS: We detected an increased incidence of both sporadic and, especially, familial ALS cases in a small region from Spain compared with available demographic and epidemiological data. We performed whole genome sequencing in a group of 12 patients with ALS (5 of them familial) from this unique area. We expanded the study to include affected family members and additional cases from a wider surrounding region. RESULTS: We identified a shared missense mutation (c.1586C>T; p.Pro529Leu) in the cyclic AMP regulated phosphoprotein 21 (ARPP21) gene that encodes an RNA-binding protein, in a total of 10 patients with ALS from 7 unrelated families. No mutations were found in other ALS-causing genes. CONCLUSIONS: While previous studies have dismissed a causal role of ARPP21 in ALS, our results strongly support ARPP21 as a novel ALS-causing gene.
RESUMO
AIMS: Amyloid precursor protein (APP) ð½-C-terminal fragment (ð½CTF) may have a neurotoxic role in Alzheimer's disease (AD). ð½CTF accumulates in the brains of patients with sporadic (SAD) and genetic forms of AD. Synapses degenerate early during the pathogenesis of AD. We studied whether the ð½CTF accumulates in synapses in SAD, autosomal dominant AD (ADAD) and Down syndrome (DS). METHODS: We used array tomography to determine APP at synapses in human AD tissue. We measured ð½CTF, Að½40, Að½42 and phosphorylated tau181 (p-tau181) concentrations in brain homogenates and synaptosomes of frontal and temporal cortex of SAD, ADAD, DS and controls. RESULTS: APP colocalised with pre- and post-synaptic markers in human AD brains. APP ð½CTF was enriched in AD synaptosomes. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that ð½CTF accumulates in synapses in SAD, ADAD and DS. This finding might suggest a role for ð½CTF in synapse degeneration. Therapies aimed at mitigating ð½CTF accumulation could be potentially beneficial in AD.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Síndrome de Down , Humanos , Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Precursor de Proteína beta-Amiloide/metabolismo , Síndrome de Down/metabolismo , Encéfalo/patologia , Sinapses/patologia , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/metabolismoRESUMO
The most frequent genetic cause of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9orf72. An important neuropathological hallmark associated with this mutation is the accumulation of the phosphorylated form of TAR (trans-activation response element) DNA-binding protein 43 (pTDP-43). Glia plays a crucial role in the neurodegeneration observed in C9orf72-associated disorders. However, less is known about the role of oligodendrocytes (OLs). Here, we applied digital neuropathological methods to compare the expression pattern of glial cells in the frontal cortex (FrCx) of human post-mortem samples from patients with C9-FTLD and C9-FTLD/ALS, sporadic FTLD (sFTLD), and healthy controls (HCs). We also compared MBP levels in CSF from an independent clinical FTD cohort. We observed an increase in GFAP, and Iba1 immunoreactivity in C9 and sFTLD compared to controls in the gray matter (GM) of the FrCx. We observed a decrease in MBP immunoreactivity in the GM and white matter (WM) of the FrCx of C9, compared to HC and sFTLD. There was a negative correlation between MBP and pTDP-43 in C9 in the WM of the FrCx. We observed an increase in CSF MBP concentrations in C9 and sFTLD compared to HC. In conclusion, the C9 expansion is associated with myelin loss in the frontal cortex. This loss of MBP may be a result of oligodendroglial dysfunction due to the expansion or the presence of pTDP-43 in OLs. Understanding these biological processes will help to identify specific pathways associated with the C9orf72 expansion.
Assuntos
Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica , Proteína C9orf72 , Demência Frontotemporal , Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal , Bainha de Mielina , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/genética , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/patologia , Proteína C9orf72/genética , Expansão das Repetições de DNA , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Demência Frontotemporal/patologia , Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal/genética , Degeneração Lobar Frontotemporal/patologia , Humanos , Bainha de Mielina/patologiaRESUMO
We report the neuropathological examination of a patient with Alzheimer's disease (AD) treated for 38 months with low doses of the BACE-1 inhibitor verubecestat. Brain examination showed small plaque size, reduced dystrophic neurites around plaques and reduced synaptic-associated Aß compared with a group of age-matched untreated sporadic AD (SAD) cases. Our findings suggest that BACE-1 inhibition has an impact on synaptic soluble Aß accumulation and neuritic derangement in AD.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Tiadiazinas , Doença de Alzheimer/tratamento farmacológico , Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/metabolismo , Encéfalo/patologia , Óxidos S-Cíclicos/uso terapêutico , Humanos , Placa Amiloide/tratamento farmacológico , Placa Amiloide/patologia , Tiadiazinas/uso terapêuticoRESUMO
Amyloid-beta 42 (Aß42) and phosphorylated tau (pTau) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) reflect core features of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) more directly than clinical diagnosis. Initiated by the European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank (EADB), the largest collaborative effort on genetics underlying CSF biomarkers was established, including 31 cohorts with a total of 13,116 individuals (discovery n = 8074; replication n = 5042 individuals). Besides the APOE locus, novel associations with two other well-established AD risk loci were observed; CR1 was shown a locus for Aß42 and BIN1 for pTau. GMNC and C16orf95 were further identified as loci for pTau, of which the latter is novel. Clustering methods exploring the influence of all known AD risk loci on the CSF protein levels, revealed 4 biological categories suggesting multiple Aß42 and pTau related biological pathways involved in the etiology of AD. In functional follow-up analyses, GMNC and C16orf95 both associated with lateral ventricular volume, implying an overlap in genetic etiology for tau levels and brain ventricular volume.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Apolipoproteínas E/genética , Biomarcadores/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular , Humanos , Fragmentos de Peptídeos/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Proteínas tau/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Proteínas tau/genéticaRESUMO
We present the clinical and neuropathological findings of a patient with early onset Alzheimer's dementia (AD), heterozygous carrier of the rare Apolipoprotein E Christchurch (APOEch) variant. The patient did not harbor any pathogenic mutation in known Mendelian genes related to AD or other neurodegenerative disorders. A sibling of this patient, also carrying the APOEch variant, developed AD at the age of 66 years old. Our data suggest a possible deleterious effect of this variant, which contrast with the protective role that has been previously shown in a subject homozygous for the APOEch with he Paisa PSEN1 mutation.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer/genética , Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Apolipoproteínas E/genética , Idoso , Encéfalo/patologia , Heterozigoto , Humanos , Masculino , Mutação , LinhagemRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Iberian Peninsula stands out as having variable levels of population admixture and isolation, making Spain an interesting setting for studying the genetic architecture of neurodegenerative diseases. OBJECTIVES: To perform the largest PD genome-wide association study restricted to a single country. METHODS: We performed a GWAS for both risk of PD and age at onset in 7,849 Spanish individuals. Further analyses included population-specific risk haplotype assessments, polygenic risk scoring through machine learning, Mendelian randomization of expression, and methylation data to gain insight into disease-associated loci, heritability estimates, genetic correlations, and burden analyses. RESULTS: We identified a novel population-specific genome-wide association study signal at PARK2 associated with age at onset, which was likely dependent on the c.155delA mutation. We replicated four genome-wide independent signals associated with PD risk, including SNCA, LRRK2, KANSL1/MAPT, and HLA-DQB1. A significant trend for smaller risk haplotypes at known loci was found compared to similar studies of non-Spanish origin. Seventeen PD-related genes showed functional consequence by two-sample Mendelian randomization in expression and methylation data sets. Long runs of homozygosity at 28 known genes/loci were found to be enriched in cases versus controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate the utility of the Spanish risk haplotype substructure for future fine-mapping efforts, showing how leveraging unique and diverse population histories can benefit genetic studies of complex diseases. The present study points to PARK2 as a major hallmark of PD etiology in Spain. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Assuntos
Doença de Parkinson/genética , Adulto , Idade de Início , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Mapeamento Cromossômico , Efeitos Psicossociais da Doença , Metilação de DNA , Feminino , Predisposição Genética para Doença/genética , Estudo de Associação Genômica Ampla , Genótipo , Haplótipos , Humanos , Aprendizado de Máquina , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Herança Multifatorial , Espanha , Ubiquitina-Proteína Ligases/genéticaRESUMO
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are part of a clinical, pathological and genetic continuum. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to assess the mutation burden that is present in patients with concurrent ALS and FTD (ALS/FTD) not carrying the chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) hexanucleotide repeat expansion, the most important genetic cause in both diseases. METHODS: From an initial group of 973 patients with ALS, we retrospectively selected those patients fulfilling diagnostic criteria of concomitant ALS and FTD lacking the repeat expansion mutation in C9orf72. Our final study group consisted of 54 patients clinically diagnosed with ALS/FTD (16 with available postmortem neuropathological diagnosis). Data from whole exome sequencing were used to screen for mutations in known ALS and/or FTD genes. RESULTS: We identified 11 patients carrying a probable pathogenic mutation, representing an overall mutation frequency of 20.4%. TBK1 was the most important genetic cause of ALS/FTD (n=5; 9.3%). The second most common mutated gene was SQSTM1, with three mutation carriers (one of them also harboured a TBK1 mutation). We also detected probable pathogenic genetic alterations in TAF15, VCP and TARDBP and possible pathogenic mutations in FIG4 and ERBB4. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate a high genetic burden underlying the co-occurrence of ALS and FTD and expand the phenotype associated with TAF15, FIG4 and ERBB4 to FTD. A systematic screening of ALS and FTD genes could be indicated in patients manifesting both diseases without the C9orf72 expansion mutation, regardless of family history of disease.
Assuntos
Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/genética , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Adulto , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/complicações , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Feminino , Flavoproteínas/genética , Demência Frontotemporal/complicações , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Mutação , Monoéster Fosfórico Hidrolases/genética , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinases/genética , Receptor ErbB-4/genética , Estudos Retrospectivos , Proteína Sequestossoma-1/genética , Fatores Associados à Proteína de Ligação a TATA/genética , Proteína com Valosina/genéticaRESUMO
AIM: To determine the motor phenotype and outcome in a clinically ascertained group of patients with motor neuron disease (MND) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). METHODS: This is an observational retrospective clinical study of patients fulfilling the clinical criteria for MND-FTD. A contemporary series of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) without dementia were included for comparison. Demographic, clinical, genetic, and neuropathological data were collected. A descriptive and comparative data analysis was performed. RESULTS: We identified 22 patients with MND-FTD. Selective distal upper limb muscle weakness and atrophy with non-significant lower limb weakness during follow-up was the most frequent motor pattern, present in 18 patients - in 15 of them associated with severe dysphagia. Aspiration pneumonia was the most common cause of death (12/19; 63%) despite gastrostomy. One-third of the patients did not develop upper motor neuron dysfunction. When compared to classic ALS without dementia (n = 162), these features were significantly different. A neuro-pathological examination was performed on 7 patients, and it confirmed the presence of MND with TDP43 protein aggregates in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: The MND-FTD patients frequently displayed a distinctive motor pattern characterized by weakness and atrophy in distal upper limb muscles and dysphagia, with no or little spreading to other regions. These features may help to define specific subgroups of patients, which is important with regard to clinical management, outcome, and research.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Demência Frontotemporal , Doença dos Neurônios Motores , Debilidade Muscular/diagnóstico , Extremidade Superior , Idoso , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/diagnóstico , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/fisiopatologia , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/psicologia , Sintomas Comportamentais/diagnóstico , Feminino , Demência Frontotemporal/diagnóstico , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Demência Frontotemporal/fisiopatologia , Demência Frontotemporal/psicologia , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/diagnóstico , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/genética , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/fisiopatologia , Doença dos Neurônios Motores/psicologia , Avaliação de Resultados em Cuidados de Saúde , Administração dos Cuidados ao Paciente/métodos , Estudos Retrospectivos , Extremidade Superior/patologia , Extremidade Superior/fisiopatologiaRESUMO
Hexanucleotide repeat expansions within the C9orf72 gene are the most important genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The difficulty of developing a precise method to determine the expansion size has hampered the study of possible correlations between the hexanucleotide repeat number and clinical phenotype. Here we characterize, through a new non-radioactive Southern blot protocol, the expansion size range in a series of 38 ALS and 22 FTD heterozygous carriers of >30 copies of the repeat. Maximum, median and modal hexanucleotide repeat number were higher in ALS patients than in FTD patients (P< 0.05 in all comparisons). A higher median number of repeats correlated with a bigger range of repeat sizes (Spearman's ρ = 0.743, P = 1.05 × 10(-11)). We did not find any correlation between age of onset or disease duration with the repeat size in neither ALS nor FTD mutation carriers. Clinical presentation (bulbar or spinal) in ALS patients did not correlate either with the repeat length. We finally analyzed two families with affected and unaffected repeat expansion carriers, compared the size of the repeat expansion between two monozygotic (MZ) twins (one affected of ALS and the other unaffected), and examined the expansion size in two different tissues (cerebellum and peripheral blood) belonging to the same FTD patient. The results suggested that the length of the C9orf72 repeat varies between family members, including MZ twins, and among different tissues from the same individual.
Assuntos
Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/genética , Expansão das Repetições de DNA , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Proteínas/genética , Southern Blotting/métodos , Proteína C9orf72 , Feminino , Heterozigoto , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Mutação , Gêmeos MonozigóticosRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: About a half of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has deposition of phosphorylated TDP-43 protein (pTDP-43) in the brain. We studied pTDP-43 and total TDP-43 levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in healthy controls and patients with FTD, including those carrying a repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene or a mutation in GRN. METHODS: We included 88 plasma samples of 10 C9orf72 expansion carriers, 5 GRN mutation carriers, 51 patients with FTD without a known mutation and 22 healthy controls. We also obtained CSF samples from 25 patients with FTD (2 with C9orf72 expansion and 3 with a GRN mutation) and 22 healthy controls. We measured pTDP-43 and total TDP-43 levels using sandwich ELISA. RESULTS: Patients carrying the C9orf72 repeat expansion or a GRN mutation had significantly higher plasma and CSF levels of pTDP-43 than the remaining patients with FTD (p<0.05). In addition, plasma pTDP-43 levels were higher in patients with FTD carrying a C9orf72 expansion or GRN mutations than in healthy controls (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that plasma pTDP-43 levels may be increased in some genetic forms of FTD known to be associated with TDP-43 proteinopathies.
Assuntos
Expansão das Repetições de DNA , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/sangue , Demência Frontotemporal/sangue , Demência Frontotemporal/genética , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intercelular/genética , Mutação , Proteínas/genética , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Southern Blotting , Encéfalo/metabolismo , Proteína C9orf72 , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismo , Ensaio de Imunoadsorção Enzimática , Feminino , Demência Frontotemporal/metabolismo , Humanos , Imuno-Histoquímica , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Fosforilação , Progranulinas , Precursores de Proteínas/genéticaRESUMO
Clinico-pathological correlation studies and positron emission tomography amyloid imaging studies have shown that some individuals can tolerate substantial amounts of Alzheimer's pathology in their brains without experiencing dementia. Few details are known about the neuropathological phenotype of these unique cases that might prove relevant to understanding human resilience to Alzheimer's pathology. We conducted detailed quantitative histopathological and biochemical assessments on brains from non-demented individuals before death whose brains were free of substantial Alzheimer's pathology, non-demented individuals before death but whose post-mortem examination demonstrated significant amounts of Alzheimer's changes ('mismatches'), and demented Alzheimer's cases. Quantification of amyloid-ß plaque burden, stereologically-based counts of neurofibrillary tangles, neurons and reactive glia, and morphological analyses of axons were performed in the multimodal association cortex lining the superior temporal sulcus. Levels of synaptic integrity markers, and soluble monomeric and multimeric amyloid-ß and tau species were measured. Our results indicate that some individuals can accumulate equivalent loads of amyloid-ß plaques and tangles to those found in demented Alzheimer's cases without experiencing dementia. Analyses revealed four main phenotypic differences among these two groups: (i) mismatches had striking preservation of neuron numbers, synaptic markers and axonal geometry compared to demented cases; (ii) demented cases had significantly higher burdens of fibrillar thioflavin-S-positive plaques and of oligomeric amyloid-ß deposits reactive to conformer-specific antibody NAB61 than mismatches; (iii) strong and selective accumulation of hyperphosphorylated soluble tau multimers into the synaptic compartment was noted in demented cases compared with controls but not in mismatches; and (iv) the robust glial activation accompanying amyloid-ß and tau pathologies in demented cases was remarkably reduced in mismatches. Further biochemical measurements of soluble amyloid-ß species-monomers, dimers and higher molecular weight oligomers-in total brain homogenates and synaptoneurosomal preparations failed to demonstrate significant differences between mismatches and demented cases. Together, these data suggest that amyloid-ß plaques and tangles do not inevitably result in neural system derangement and dementia in all individuals. We identified distinct phenotypic characteristics in the profile of brain fibrillar and soluble amyloid-ß and tau accrual and in the glial response that discriminated demented and non-demented individuals with high loads of Alzheimer's pathology. Amyloid-ß deposition in the form of fibrillar plaques and intimately related oligomeric amyloid-ß assemblies, hyperphosphorylated soluble tau species localized in synapses, and glial activation emerged in this series as likely mediators of neurotoxicity and altered cognition, providing further insight into factors and pathways potentially involved in human susceptibility or resilience to Alzheimer's pathological changes.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Encéfalo/patologia , Emaranhados Neurofibrilares/patologia , Placa Amiloide/patologia , Resiliência Psicológica , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Doença de Alzheimer/metabolismo , Doença de Alzheimer/psicologia , Encéfalo/metabolismo , Cognição , Humanos , Emaranhados Neurofibrilares/metabolismo , Neuroglia/metabolismo , Neuroglia/patologia , Neurônios/metabolismo , Neurônios/patologia , Fenótipo , Placa Amiloide/metabolismo , Proteínas tau/metabolismoRESUMO
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of APOE4 homozygosity on Alzheimer's disease (AD) by examining its clinical, pathological and biomarker changes to see whether APOE4 homozygotes constitute a distinct, genetically determined form of AD. Data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center and five large cohorts with AD biomarkers were analyzed. The analysis included 3,297 individuals for the pathological study and 10,039 for the clinical study. Findings revealed that almost all APOE4 homozygotes exhibited AD pathology and had significantly higher levels of AD biomarkers from age 55 compared to APOE3 homozygotes. By age 65, nearly all had abnormal amyloid levels in cerebrospinal fluid, and 75% had positive amyloid scans, with the prevalence of these markers increasing with age, indicating near-full penetrance of AD biology in APOE4 homozygotes. The age of symptom onset was earlier in APOE4 homozygotes at 65.1, with a narrower 95% prediction interval than APOE3 homozygotes. The predictability of symptom onset and the sequence of biomarker changes in APOE4 homozygotes mirrored those in autosomal dominant AD and Down syndrome. However, in the dementia stage, there were no differences in amyloid or tau positron emission tomography across haplotypes, despite earlier clinical and biomarker changes. The study concludes that APOE4 homozygotes represent a genetic form of AD, suggesting the need for individualized prevention strategies, clinical trials and treatments.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Apolipoproteína E4 , Biomarcadores , Homozigoto , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Idade de Início , Doença de Alzheimer/genética , Doença de Alzheimer/patologia , Doença de Alzheimer/diagnóstico por imagem , Doença de Alzheimer/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Amiloide/metabolismo , Amiloide/genética , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/genética , Peptídeos beta-Amiloides/metabolismo , Apolipoproteína E3/genética , Apolipoproteína E4/genética , Biomarcadores/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Estudos de Coortes , Tomografia por Emissão de Pósitrons , Proteínas tau/genética , Proteínas tau/líquido cefalorraquidianoRESUMO
A hexanucleotide repeat expansion in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) can cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and/or frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We assessed its frequency in 781 sporadic ALS (sALS) and 155 familial ALS (fALS) cases, and in 248 Spanish controls. We tested the presence of the reported founder haplotype among mutation carriers and in 171 Ceph Europeans from Utah (CEU), 170 Yoruba Africans, 81 Han Chinese, and 85 Japanese subjects. The C9orf72 expansion was present in 27.1% of fALS and 3.2% of sALS. Mutation carriers showed lower age at onset (P = 0.04), shorter survival (P = 0.02), greater co-occurrence of FTD (P = 8.2 × 10(-5)), and more family history of ALS (P = 1.4 × 10(-20)), than noncarriers. No association between alleles within the normal range and the risk of ALS was found (P = 0.12). All 61 of the mutation carriers were tested and a patient carrying 28 hexanucleotide repeats presented with the founder haplotype. This haplotype was found in 5.6% Yoruba Africans, 8.9% CEU, 3.9% Japanese, and 1.6% Han Chinese chromosomes.
Assuntos
Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/genética , Expansão das Repetições de DNA/genética , Predisposição Genética para Doença/genética , Proteínas/genética , África/etnologia , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica/etnologia , Povo Asiático/genética , Proteína C9orf72 , China/etnologia , Análise Mutacional de DNA , Etnicidade/genética , Europa (Continente)/etnologia , Feminino , Frequência do Gene , Predisposição Genética para Doença/etnologia , Haplótipos , Heterozigoto , Humanos , Japão/etnologia , Estimativa de Kaplan-Meier , Masculino , Mutação , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único , EspanhaRESUMO
Dementia is a leading cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence as global life expectancy increases. The most common neurodegenerative disorders are Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). With this study, we took an in-depth look at the proteome of the (non-purified) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the CSF-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) of AD, PD, PD-MCI (Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment), PDD and DLB patients analysed by label-free mass spectrometry. This has led to the discovery of differentially expressed proteins that may be helpful for differential diagnosis. We observed a greater number of differentially expressed proteins in CSF-derived EV samples (N = 276) compared to non-purified CSF (N = 169), with minimal overlap between both datasets. This finding suggests that CSF-derived EV samples may be more suitable for the discovery phase of a biomarker study, due to the removal of more abundant proteins, resulting in a narrower dynamic range. As disease-specific markers, we selected a total of 39 biomarker candidates identified in non-purified CSF, and 37 biomarker candidates across the different diseases under investigation in the CSF-derived EV data. After further exploration and validation of these proteins, they can be used to further differentiate between the included dementias and may offer new avenues for research into more disease-specific pharmacological therapeutics.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Demência , Vesículas Extracelulares , Doença por Corpos de Lewy , Doença de Parkinson , Humanos , Doença de Alzheimer/diagnóstico , Doença por Corpos de Lewy/diagnóstico , Doença por Corpos de Lewy/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Doença por Corpos de Lewy/complicações , Doença de Parkinson/diagnóstico , Doença de Parkinson/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Doença de Parkinson/complicações , Demência/diagnóstico , Demência/líquido cefalorraquidiano , Demência/etiologia , Proteômica , BiomarcadoresRESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease associated with comorbid thymoma in 10%-15% of cases. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) expressed by T cells downregulates T-cell-mediated immune response. Polymorphisms in the CTLA4 gene have been associated with the development of MG. In this context, we aimed to determine whether CTLA4 expression in the thymoma differs between patients with and without MG and whether CTLA4 gene polymorphisms are associated with these differences. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all patients, with and without MG, surgically treated at our institution for thymoma between January 2010 and December 2020. Ten samples were obtained from normal thymuses as controls. The number of CTLA4-positive cells in paraffin-embedded thymoma samples was determined by immunohistochemistry. The presence of follicular-center and regulatory T-cell lymphocytes was determined by immunohistochemistry (B-cell lymphoma [BCL]-6 expression) and double immunofluorescence-based staining of CD4-FOXP3, respectively. We evaluated the association between thymic expression of CTLA4 and the development of MG. We also determined the association between CTLA4 expression and various clinical and prognostic characteristics of MG. We sequenced the CTLA4 gene and evaluated possible associations between CTLA4 polymorphisms and thymic CTLA4 expression. Finally, we assessed the potential association between these polymorphisms and the risk of MG. RESULTS: Forty-one patients with thymoma were included. Of them, 23 had comorbid MG (56.1%). On average, patients with MG had fewer CTLA4-positive cells in the thymoma than non-MG patients: 69.3 cells/mm2 (95% CIs: 39.6-99.1) vs 674.4 (276.0-1,024.0) cells/mm2; p = 0.001 and vs controls (200.74 [57.9-343.6] cells/mm2; p = 0.02). No between-group differences (MG vs non-MG) were observed in the number of cells positive for BCL6 or CD4-FOXP3. CTLA4 expression was not associated with differences in MG outcome or treatment refractoriness. Two polymorphisms were detected in the CTLA4 gene, rs231770 (n = 30 patients) and rs231775 (n = 17). MG was present in a similar proportion of patients for all genotypes. However, a nonsignificant trend toward a lower CTLA4-positive cell count was observed among carriers of the rs231775 polymorphism vs noncarriers: 77.9 cells/mm2 (95% CI: -51.5 to 207.5) vs 343.3 cells/mm2 (95% CI: 126.2-560.4). DISCUSSION: Reduced CTLA4 expression in thymoma may predispose to a higher risk of developing MG.
Assuntos
Miastenia Gravis , Timoma , Neoplasias do Timo , Humanos , Antígeno CTLA-4/genética , Estudos Retrospectivos , Neoplasias do Timo/complicações , Fatores de Transcrição Forkhead/genética , ProbabilidadeRESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of unknown etiology and poorly understood pathophysiology. There is no specific biomarker either for diagnosis or prognosis. The aim of our study was to investigate differentially expressed proteins in the CSF and serum from patients with ALS to determine their role in the disease process and evaluate their utility as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. METHODS: We performed mass spectrometry in the CSF from 3 patients with ALS and 3 healthy controls (HCs). The results were compared with motor cortex dysregulated transcripts obtained from 11patients with sporadic ALS and 8 HCs. Candidate proteins were tested using ELISA in the serum of 123 patients with ALS, 30 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), 28 patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and 102 HCs. Patients with ALS, AD, and FTD were prospectively recruited from January 2003 to December 2020. A group of age-matched HCs was randomly selected from the Sant Pau Initiative on Neurodegeneration cohort of the Sant Pau Memory Unit. RESULTS: Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2) and osteopontin (Spp1) were differentially expressed in the CSF and the motor cortex transcriptome of patients with ALS compared with that in HCs (p < 0.05). NOD2 and Spp1 levels were significantly higher in sera from patients with ALS than in HCs (p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.63 for NOD2 and 0.81 for Spp1. NOD2 levels were significantly lower in patients with AD and FTD than in patients with ALS (p < 0.0001), but we found no significant differences in Spp1 levels between patients with ALS, AD (p = 0.51), and FTD (p = 0.42). We found a negative correlation between Spp1 levels and ALS functional rating scale (r = -0.24, p = 0.009). DISCUSSION: Our discovery-based approach identified NOD2 as a novel biomarker in ALS and adds evidence to the contribution of Spp1 in the disease process. Both proteins are involved in innate immunity and autophagy and are increased in the serum from patients with ALS. Our data support a relevant role of neuroinflammation in the pathophysiology of the disease and may identify targets for disease-modifying treatments in ALS. Further longitudinal studies should investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of NOD2 and Spp1 in clinical practice.
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Doença de Alzheimer , Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica , Demência Frontotemporal , Doenças Neurodegenerativas , Humanos , Osteopontina , Doenças Neuroinflamatórias , Proteína Adaptadora de Sinalização NOD2/genéticaRESUMO
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) H1 homozygosity (H1/H1 haplotype) is a genetic risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). MAPT H1 homozygosity has been associated with conversion to PD; however, results are conflicting since some studies did not find a strong influence. Cortical hypometabolism is associated with cognitive impairment in PD. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the metabolic pattern in nondemented PD patients MAPT H1/H1 carriers in comparison with MAPT H1/H2 haplotype. In addition, we evaluated domain-specific cognitive differences according to MAPT haplotype. METHODS: We compared a group of 26 H1/H1 and 20 H1/H2 carriers with late-onset PD. Participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological cognitive evaluation and a [18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose PET-MR scan. RESULTS: MAPT H1/H1 carriers showed worse performance in the digit span forward test of attention compared to MAPT H1/H2 carriers. In the [18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose PET comparisons, MAPT H1/H1 displayed hypometabolism in the frontal cortex, parahippocampal, and cingulate gyrus, as well as in the caudate and globus pallidus. CONCLUSION: PD patients MAPT H1/H1 carriers without dementia exhibit relative hypometabolism in several cortical areas as well as in the basal ganglia, and worse performance in attention than MAPT H1/H2 carriers. Longitudinal studies should assess if lower scores in attention and dysfunction in these areas are predictors of dementia in MAPT H1/H1 homozygotes.