Decreased basal ganglia and thalamic iron in early psychotic spectrum disorders are associated with increased psychotic and schizotypal symptoms.

Iron deficits have been reported as a risk factor for psychotic spectrum disorders (PSD). However, examinations of brain iron in PSD remain limited. The current study employed quantitative MRI to examine iron content in several iron-rich subcortical structures in 49 young adult individuals with PSD (15 schizophrenia, 17 schizoaffective disorder, and 17 bipolar disorder with psychotic features) compared with 35 age-matched healthy controls (HC). A parametric approach based on a two-pool magnetization transfer model was applied to estimate longitudinal relaxation rate (R1), which reflects both iron and myelin, and macromolecular proton fraction (MPF), which is specific to myelin. To describe iron content, a synthetic effective transverse relaxation rate (R2*) was modeled using a linear fitting of R1 and MPF. PSD patients compared to HC showed significantly reduced R1 and synthetic R2* across examined regions including the pallidum, ventral diencephalon, thalamus, and putamen areas. This finding was primarily driven by decreases in the subgroup with schizophrenia, followed by schizoaffective disorder. No significant group differences were noted for MPF between PSD and HC while for regional volume, significant reductions in patients were only observed in bilateral caudate, suggesting that R1 and synthetic R2* reductions in schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients likely reflect iron deficits that either occur independently or precede structural and myelin changes. Subcortical R1 and synthetic R2* were also found to be inversely related to positive symptoms within the PSD group and to schizotypal traits across the whole sample. These findings that decreased iron in subcortical regions are associated with PSD risk and symptomatology suggest that brain iron deficiencies may play a role in PSD pathology and warrant further study.

Reduced Microstructural Lateralization in Males with Chronic Schizophrenia: A Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging Study.

Decreased brain lateralization is considered a trait marker of schizophrenia. Whereas reductions in both functional and macrostructural gray matter laterality in schizophrenia are well established, the investigation of gray matter microstructural lateralization has so far been limited to a small number of ex vivo studies, which limits the understanding of neurobiological substrates involved and development of adequate treatments. The aim of the current study was to assess in vivo gray matter microstructure lateralization patterns in schizophrenia by employing the diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI)-derived mean kurtosis (MK) metric. MK was calculated for 18 right-handed males with chronic schizophrenia and 19 age-matched healthy control participants in 46 bilateral gray matter regions of interest (ROI). Microstructural laterality indexes (µLIs) were calculated for each subject and ROI, and group comparisons were conducted across regions. The relationship between µLI values and performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was also evaluated. We found that compared with healthy controls, males with chronic schizophrenia had significantly decreased µLI across cortical and subcortical gray matter regions, which was correlated with poorer performance on the WCST. Our results suggest the ability of DKI-derived MK to capture gray matter microstructural lateralization pathology in vivo.

Microstructural and Microvascular Alterations in Psychotic Spectrum Disorders: A Three-Compartment Intravoxel Incoherent Imaging and Free Water Model.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Microvascular and inflammatory mechanisms have been hypothesized to be involved in the pathophysiology of psychotic spectrum disorders (PSDs). However, data evaluating these hypotheses remain limited. STUDY DESIGN: We applied a three-compartment intravoxel incoherent motion free water imaging (IVIM-FWI) technique that estimates the perfusion fraction (PF), free water fraction (FW), and anisotropic diffusion of tissue (FAt) to examine microvascular and microstructural changes in gray and white matter in 55 young adults with a PSD compared to 37 healthy controls (HCs). STUDY RESULTS: We found significantly increased PF, FW, and FAt in gray matter regions, and significantly increased PF, FW, and decreased FAt in white matter regions in the PSD group versus HC. Furthermore, in patients, but not in the HC group, increased PF, FW, and FAt in gray matter and increased PF in white matter were significantly associated with poor performance on several cognitive tests assessing memory and processing speed. We additionally report significant associations between IVIM-FWI metrics and myo-inositol, choline, and N-acetylaspartic acid magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging metabolites in the posterior cingulate cortex, which further supports the validity of PF, FW, and FAt as microvascular and microstructural biomarkers of PSD. Finally, we found significant relationships between IVIM-FWI metrics and the duration of psychosis in gray and white matter regions. CONCLUSIONS: The three-compartment IVIM-FWI model provides metrics that are associated with cognitive deficits and may reflect disease progression.

Diffusion kurtosis imaging of gray matter in young adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Prior ex vivo histological postmortem studies of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown gray matter microstructural abnormalities, however, in vivo examination of gray matter microstructure in ASD has remained scarce due to the relative lack of non-invasive methods to assess it. The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of employing diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) to describe gray matter abnormalities in ASD in vivo. DKI data were examined for 16 male participants with a diagnosis of ASD and IQ>80 and 17 age- and IQ-matched male typically developing (TD) young adults 18-25 years old. Mean (MK), axial (AK), radial (RK) kurtosis and mean diffusivity (MD) metrics were calculated for lobar and sub-lobar regions of interest. Significantly decreased MK, RK, and MD were found in ASD compared to TD participants in the frontal and temporal lobes and several sub-lobar regions previously associated with ASD pathology. In ASD participants, decreased kurtosis in gray matter ROIs correlated with increased repetitive and restricted behaviors and poor social interaction symptoms. Decreased kurtosis in ASD may reflect a pathology associated with a less restrictive microstructural environment such as decreased neuronal density and size, atypically sized cortical columns, or limited dendritic arborizations.

Diffusion kurtosis imaging of gray matter in schizophrenia.

Prior postmortem studies have shown gray matter (GM) microstructural abnormalities in schizophrenia. However, few studies to date have examined GM microstructural integrity in schizophrenia in vivo. Here, we employed diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to test for differences in GM microstructure in eighteen schizophrenia (SZ) patients versus nineteen healthy controls (HC). GM microstructure was characterized in each participant using DKI-derived metrics of mean kurtosis (MK) and mean diffusivity (MD). Individual T1-weighted images were used to create subject-specific cortically-labelled regions of interest (ROIs) of the four cortical lobes and sixty-eight cortical GM regions delineated by the Desikan-Killiany atlas, and to derive the associated cortical thickness and area measures. The derived ROIs were also registered to the diffusion space of each subject and used to generate region-specific mean MK and MD values. We additionally administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop test, and Trail Making Test part B (Trails-B) to test the relationship between GM metrics and executive function in SZ. We found significantly increased MK and MD in SZ compared to HC participants in the temporal lobe, sub-lobar temporal cortical regions (fusiform, inferior temporal, middle temporal and temporal pole), and posterior cingulate cortex after correcting for multiple comparisons. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations of MK and MD with executive function scores derived from the WCST, Stroop, and Trails-B tests, along with an inverse relationship between MK and MD and cortical thickness and area. A hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis showed that up to 85% of the inter-subject variability in cognitive function in schizophrenia measured by the WCST could be explained by MK in combination with either GM thickness or area. MK and MD appear to be sensitive to GM microstructural pathology in schizophrenia and may provide useful biomarkers of abnormal cortical microstructure in this disorder.

Data-driven regions of interest for longitudinal change in three variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

INTRODUCTION: Longitudinal imaging of neurodegenerative disorders is a potentially powerful biomarker for use in clinical trials. In Alzheimer's disease, studies have demonstrated that empirically derived regions of interest (ROIs) can provide more reliable measurement of disease progression compared with anatomically defined ROIs. METHODS: We set out to derive ROIs with optimal effect size for quantifying longitudinal change in a hypothetical clinical trial by comparing atrophy rates in 44 patients with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), 30 with the semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), and 26 with the nonfluent variant PPA (nfvPPA) to atrophy in 97 cognitively healthy controls. RESULTS: The regions identified for each variant were generally what would be expected from prior studies of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Sample size estimates for detecting a 40% reduction in annual rate of ROI atrophy varied substantially across groups, being 103 per arm in bvFTD, 31 in nfvPPA, and 10 in svPPA, but in all groups were less than those estimated for a priori ROIs and clinical measures. The variability in location of peak regions of atrophy across individuals was highest in bvFTD and lowest in svPPA, likely relating to the differences in effect size. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, while cross-validated maps of change can improve sensitivity to change in FTLD compared with a priori regions, the reliability of these maps differs considerably across syndromes. Future studies can utilize these maps to design clinical trials, and should try to identify factors accounting for the variability in patterns of atrophy across individuals, particularly those with bvFTD.

Comparison of ApoE-related brain connectivity differences in early MCI and normal aging populations: an fMRI study.

In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans from subjects with early mild cognitive impairment (EMCI) and control subjects to study functional network connectivity. The scans were acquired by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). We used genetic data from the ADNI database to further subdivide the EMCI and control groups into genotype groups with or without the Apolipoprotein E allele e4 (APOE e4). Region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI resting-state functional connectivity was measured using Freesurfer and the Functional Connectivity Toolbox for Matlab (CONN). In our analysis, we compared whole-brain ROI connectivity strength and ROI-to-ROI functional network connectivity strength between EMCI, control and genotype subject groups. We found that the ROI network properties were disrupted in EMCI and APOE e4 carrier groups. Notably, we show that (1) EMCI disrupts functional connectivity strength in many important functionally-linked areas; (2) APOE e4 disrupts functional connectivity strength in similar areas to EMCI; and (3) the differences in functional connectivity between groups shows a multifactor contribution to functional network dysfunction along the trajectory leading to dementia.

Clavulanic acid reduces rewarding, hyperthermic and locomotor-sensitizing effects of morphine in rats: a new indication for an old drug?

BACKGROUND: Despite the efficacy of ceftriaxone (CTX) in animal models of CNS diseases, including drug addiction, its utility as a CNS-active therapeutic may be limited by poor brain penetrability and cumbersome parenteral administration. An alternative is the ß-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid (CA), a constituent of Augmentin that prevents antibiotic degradation. CA possesses the ß-lactam core necessary for CNS activity but, relative to CTX, possesses: (1) oral activity; (2) 2.5-fold greater brain penetrability; and (3) negligible antibiotic activity. METHODS: To compare the effectiveness of CA (10mg/kg) and CTX (200mg/kg) against centrally-mediated endpoints, we investigated their effects against morphine's rewarding, hyperthermic, and locomotor-sensitizing actions. Endpoints were based on prior evidence that CTX attenuates morphine-induced physical dependence, tolerance, and hyperthermia. RESULTS: As expected, rats treated with morphine (4 mg/kg) displayed hyperthermia and conditioned place preference (CPP). Co-treatment with CTX or CA inhibited development of morphine-induced CPP by approximately 70%. Morphine's hyperthermic effect was also suppressed, with CTX and CA producing 57% and 47% inhibition, respectively. Locomotor sensitization induced by repeated morphine exposures was inhibited by CA but not CTX. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings are the first to suggest that CA disrupts the in vivo actions of morphine and point toward further studying CA as a potential therapy for drug addiction. Further, its ability to disrupt morphine's rewarding effects at 20-fold lower doses than CTX identifies CA as an existing, orally-active alternative to direct CTX therapy for CNS diseases.