Browsing by Author "Miller, Bruce L."

Now showing 1 - 10 of 26
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A harmonized memory composite score for cross‐cohort Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia research: development and validation
    (Wiley, 2025-01-03) Sanderson-Cimino, Mark E.; Gross, Alden L.; Gaynor, Leslie S.; Paolillo, Emily W.; Casaletto, Kaitlin B.; Chatterjee, Ankita; Albert, Marilyn S.; Apostolova, Liana G.; Boersema, Brooke; Boxer, Adam L.; Boeve, Brad F.; Clark, Lindsay R.; La Joie, Renaud; Eloyan, Ani; Tomaszewski Farias, Sarah; Gonzales, Mitzi M.; Hammers, Dustin B.; Wise, Amy B.; Cobigo, Yann; Yballa, Claire; Schonhaut, Daniel R.; Hampstead, Benjamin M.; Mechanic-Hamilton, Dawn; Miller, Bruce L.; Rabinovici, Gil D.; Rascovsky, Katya; Ringman, John M.; Rosen, Howard J.; Ryman, Sephira; Salmon, David P.; Smith, Glenn E.; Decarli, Charles; Kramer, Joel H.; Staffaroni, Adam M.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Background: The Uniform Data Set (UDS) neuropsychological battery, administered across Alzheimer’s Disease Centers (ADC), includes memory tests but lacks a list‐learning paradigm. ADCs often supplement the UDS with their own preferred list‐learning task. Given the importance of list‐learning for characterizing memory, we aimed to develop a harmonized memory score that incorporates UDS memory tests while allowing centers to contribute differing list‐learning tasks. Method: We applied item‐banking confirmatory factor analysis to develop a composite memory score in 5,287 participants (mean age 67.1; SD = 12.2) recruited through 18 ADCs and four consortia (DiverseVCID, MarkVCID, ALLFTD, LEADS) who completed UDS memory tasks (used as linking‐items) and one of five list‐learning tasks. All analyses used linear regression. We tested whether memory scores were affected by which list‐learning task was administered. To assess construct validity, we tested associations of memory scores with demographics, disease severity (CDR Box Score), an independent memory task (TabCAT Favorites, n = 675), and hippocampal volume (n = 811). We compared performances between cognitively unimpaired (n = 279), AD‐biomarker+ MCI (n = 26), and AD‐biomarker+ dementia (n = 98). In a subsample with amyloid‐ and tau‐PET (n = 49), we compared memory scores from participants with positive vs negative scans determined using established quantitative cutoffs. Result: Model fit indices were excellent (e.g., CFI = 0.998) and factor loadings were strong (0.43‐0.93). Differences in list‐learning task had a negligible effect on scores (average Cohen’s d = 0.11). Higher memory scores were significantly (p’s<.001) correlated with younger age (β = ‐0.18), lower CDR Box Scores (β = ‐0.63), female sex (β = 0.12), higher education (β = 0.19), larger hippocampal volume (β = 0.42), and an independent memory task (β = 0.71, p<0.001). The memory composite declined in a stepwise fashion by diagnosis (cognitively unimpaired>MCI>AD dementia, p<0.001). On average, amyloid‐PET positivity was associated with lower composite scores, but was not statistically significant (β = ‐0.34; p = 0.25; d = 0.40). Tau‐PET positivity was associated with worse performance, demonstrating a large effect size (β = ‐0.75; p<0.002; d = 0.91). Conclusion: The harmonized memory score developed in a large national sample was stable regardless of contributing list‐learning task and its validity for cross‐cohort ADRD research is supported by expected associations with demographics, clinical measures, and Alzheimer’s biomarkers. A processing script will be made available to enhance cross‐cohort ADRD research.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Adverse Social Exposome by Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) Neuropathology for a National Cohort of Brain Donors within the Neighborhoods Study
    (Wiley, 2025-01-09) Kind, Amy J. H.; Bendlin, Barbara B.; Keller, Sarah A.; Powell, W. Ryan; DeWitt, Amanda; Cheng, Yixuan; Chamberlain, Luke; Lyons Boone, Brittney; Miller, Megan J.; Vik, Stacie M.; Abner, Erin L.; Alosco, Michael L.; Apostolova, Liana G.; Bakulski, Kelly M.; Barnes, Lisa L.; Bateman, James R.; Beach, Thomas G.; Bennett, David A.; Brewer, James B.; Carrion, Carmen; Chodosh, Joshua; Craft, Suzanne; Croff, Raina; Fabio, Anthony; Tomaszewski Farias, Sarah; Goldstein, Felicia; Henderson, Victor W.; Karikari, Thomas; Kofler, Julia; Kucharska-Newton, Anna M.; Lamar, Melissa; Lanata, Serggio; Lepping, Rebecca J.; Lingler, Jennifer H.; Lockhart, Samuel N.; Mahnken, Jonathan D.; Marsh, Karyn; Meyer, Oanh L.; Miller, Bruce L.; Morris, Jill K.; Neugroschl, Judith A.; O'Connor, Maureen K.; Paulson, Henry L.; Perrin, Richard J.; Pierce, Aimee; Raji, Cyrus A.; Reiman, Eric M.; Risacher, Shannon L.; Rissman, Robert A.; Rodriguez Espinoza, Patricia; Sano, Mary; Saykin, Andrew J.; Serrano, Geidy E.; Sultzer, David L.; Whitmer, Rachel A.; Wisniewski, Thomas; Woltjer, Randall; Zhu, Carolyn W.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Background: Adverse social exposome (indexed by high national Area Deprivation Index [ADI]) is linked to structural inequities and increased risk of clinical dementia diagnosis, yet linkage to ADRD neuropathology remains largely unknown. Early work from single site brain banks suggests a relationship, but assessment in large national cohorts is needed to increase generalizability and depth, particularly for rarer neuropathology findings. Objective: Determine the association between adverse social exposome by ADI and ADRD neuropathology for brain donors from 21 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) brain banks as part of the on‐going Neighborhoods Study. Methods: All brain donors in participating sites with neuropathology data deposited at the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) and identifiers for ADI linkage (N = 8,637; Figure 1) were included. Geocoded donor addresses were linked to time‐concordant national ADI percentiles for year of death, categorized into standard groupings of low (ADI 1‐19), medium (20‐49) and high (50‐100) ADI. Neuropathological findings were drawn from NACC and reflected standard assessment practices at time of donation. Logistic regression models, adjusted for sex and age at death, assessed relationships between high ADI and neuropathology findings. Results: Of the N = 8,637 brain donors (Table 1), 2,071 of 2,366 assessed (88%) had AD pathology by NIA‐AA criteria; 4,197 of 6,929 assessed (61%) had cerebral amyloid angiopathy; 2582 of 8092 assessed (32%) had Lewy body pathology; 391 of 2351 assessed (17%) had non‐AD tauopathy; and 586 of 1680 assessed (35%) had TDP‐43 pathology. 2,126(25%) were high ADI; 3,171(37%) medium ADI and 3,340(38%) low ADI with 51% female and average age at death of 81.9 years. As compared to low ADI donors, high ADI brain donors had adjusted odds = 1.35 (95% CI = 0.98‐1.86, p‐value = 0.06) for AD pathology; 1.10 (0.98–1.25, p = 0.11) for cerebral amyloid angiopathy; 1.37 (1.21–1.55, p<0.01) for Lewy body; 1.09 (0.83–1.44, p = 0.53) for non‐AD tauopathy; and 1.40 (1.08‐1.81, p = 0.01) for TDP‐43 pathology (Table 2). Conclusions: This first‐in‐field study provides evidence that the adverse social exposome (high ADI) is strongly associated with an increased risk of Lewy body, an increased risk of TDP‐43, and a trend towards increased AD pathology in a national cohort of brain donors.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Apolipoprotein ε4 Is Associated with Lower Brain Volume in Cognitively Normal Chinese but Not White Older Adults
    (PLoS, 2016-06-17) Yokoyama, Jennifer S.; Lee, Allen K.L.; Takada, Leonel T.; Busovaca, Edgar; Bonham, Luke W.; Chao, Steven Z.; Tse, Marian; He, Jing; Schwarz, Christopher G.; Carmichael, Owen T.; Matthews, Brandy R.; Karydas, Anna; Weiner, Michael W.; Coppola, Giovanni; DeCarli, Charles S.; Miller, Bruce L.; Rosen, Howard J.; Department of Neurology, IU School of Medicine
    Studying ethnically diverse groups is important for furthering our understanding of biological mechanisms of disease that may vary across human populations. The ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E (APOE ε4) is a well-established risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and may confer anatomic and functional effects years before clinical signs of cognitive decline are observed. The allele frequency of APOE ε4 varies both across and within populations, and the size of the effect it confers for dementia risk may be affected by other factors. Our objective was to investigate the role APOE ε4 plays in moderating brain volume in cognitively normal Chinese older adults, compared to older white Americans. We hypothesized that carrying APOE ε4 would be associated with reduced brain volume and that the magnitude of this effect would be different between ethnic groups. We performed whole brain analysis of structural MRIs from Chinese living in America (n = 41) and Shanghai (n = 30) and compared them to white Americans (n = 71). We found a significant interaction effect of carrying APOE ε4 and being Chinese. The APOE ε4xChinese interaction was associated with lower volume in bilateral cuneus and left middle frontal gyrus (Puncorrected<0.001), with suggestive findings in right entorhinal cortex and left hippocampus (Puncorrected<0.01), all regions that are associated with neurodegeneration in AD. After correction for multiple testing, the left cuneus remained significantly associated with the interaction effect (PFWE = 0.05). Our study suggests there is a differential effect of APOE ε4 on brain volume in Chinese versus white cognitively normal elderly adults. This represents a novel finding that, if verified in larger studies, has implications for how biological, environmental and/or lifestyle factors may modify APOE ε4 effects on the brain in diverse populations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Association of Plasma P-tau217 and P-tau181 with clinical phenotype, neuropathology, and imaging markers in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a retrospective diagnostic performance study
    (Elsevier, 2021) Thijssen, Elisabeth H.; La Joie, Renaud; Strom, Amelia; Fonseca, Corrina; Iaccarino, Leonardo; Wolf, Amy; Spina, Salvatore; Allen, Isabel E.; Cobigo, Yann; Heuer, Hilary; VandeVrede, Lawren; Proctor, Nicholas K.; Lago, Argentina Lario; Baker, Suzanne; Sivasankaran, Rajeev; Kieloch, Agnieszka; Kinhikar, Arvind; Yu, Lili; Valentin, Marie-Anne; Jeromin, Andreas; Zetterberg, Henrik; Hansson, Oskar; Mattsson-Carlgren, Niklas; Graham, Danielle; Blennow, Kaj; Kramer, Joel H.; Grinberg, Lea T.; Seeley, William W.; Rosen, Howard; Boeve, Bradley F.; Miller, Bruce L.; Teunissen, Charlotte E.; Rabinovici, Gil D.; Rojas, Julio C.; Dage, Jeffrey L.; Boxer, Adam L.; Advancing Research and Treatment for Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration investigators; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Background: Plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (p-tau217) and plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau181) are associated with Alzheimer's disease tau pathology. We compared the diagnostic value of both biomarkers in cognitively unimpaired participants and patients with a clinical diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease syndromes, or frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) syndromes. Methods: In this retrospective multicohort diagnostic performance study, we analysed plasma samples, obtained from patients aged 18-99 years old who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (Alzheimer's disease dementia, logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia, or posterior cortical atrophy), FTLD syndromes (corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia, or semantic variant primary progressive aphasia), or mild cognitive impairment; the participants were from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA, USA, and the Advancing Research and Treatment for Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Consortium (ARTFL; 17 sites in the USA and two in Canada). Participants from both cohorts were carefully characterised, including assessments of CSF p-tau181, amyloid-PET or tau-PET (or both), and clinical and cognitive evaluations. Plasma p-tau181 and p-tau217 were measured using electrochemiluminescence-based assays, which differed only in the biotinylated antibody epitope specificity. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to determine diagnostic accuracy of both plasma markers using clinical diagnosis, neuropathological findings, and amyloid-PET and tau-PET measures as gold standards. Difference between two area under the curve (AUC) analyses were tested with the Delong test. Findings: Data were collected from 593 participants (443 from UCSF and 150 from ARTFL, mean age 64 years [SD 13], 294 [50%] women) between July 1 and Nov 30, 2020. Plasma p-tau217 and p-tau181 were correlated (r=0·90, p<0·0001). Both p-tau217 and p-tau181 concentrations were increased in people with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (n=75, mean age 65 years [SD 10]) relative to cognitively unimpaired controls (n=118, mean age 61 years [SD 18]; AUC=0·98 [95% CI 0·95-1·00] for p-tau217, AUC=0·97 [0·94-0·99] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·31) and in pathology-confirmed Alzheimer's disease (n=15, mean age 73 years [SD 12]) versus pathologically confirmed FTLD (n=68, mean age 67 years [SD 8]; AUC=0·96 [0·92-1·00] for p-tau217, AUC=0·91 [0·82-1·00] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·22). P-tau217 outperformed p-tau181 in differentiating patients with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (n=75) from those with FTLD syndromes (n=274, mean age 67 years [SD 9]; AUC=0·93 [0·91-0·96] for p-tau217, AUC=0·91 [0·88-0·94] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·01). P-tau217 was a stronger indicator of amyloid-PET positivity (n=146, AUC=0·91 [0·88-0·94]) than was p-tau181 (n=214, AUC=0·89 [0·86-0·93]; pdiff=0·049). Tau-PET binding in the temporal cortex was more strongly associated with p-tau217 than p-tau181 (r=0·80 vs r=0·72; pdiff<0·0001, n=230). Interpretation: Both p-tau217 and p-tau181 had excellent diagnostic performance for differentiating patients with Alzheimer's disease syndromes from other neurodegenerative disorders. There was some evidence in favour of p-tau217 compared with p-tau181 for differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease syndromes versus FTLD syndromes, as an indication of amyloid-PET-positivity, and for stronger correlations with tau-PET signal. Pending replication in independent, diverse, and older cohorts, plasma p-tau217 and p-tau181 could be useful screening tools to identify individuals with underlying amyloid and Alzheimer's disease tau pathology.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Association of Structural Forms of 17q21.31 with the Risk of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and MAPT Sub-haplotypes
    (medRxiv, 2024-02-28) Wang, Hui; Chang, Timothy S.; Dombroski, Beth A.; Cheng, Po-Liang; Si, Ya-Qin; Tucci, Albert; Patil, Vishakha; Valiente-Banuet, Leopoldo; Farrell, Kurt; Mclean, Catriona; Molina-Porcel, Laura; Alex, Rajput; De Deyn, Peter Paul; Le Bastard, Nathalie; Gearing, Marla; Donker Kaat, Laura; Van Swieten, John C.; Dopper, Elise; Ghetti, Bernardino F.; Newell, Kathy L.; Troakes, Claire; de Yébenes, Justo G.; Rábano-Gutierrez, Alberto; Meller, Tina; Oertel, Wolfgang H.; Respondek, Gesine; Stamelou, Maria; Arzberger, Thomas; Roeber, Sigrun; Müller, Ulrich; Hopfner, Franziska; Pastor, Pau; Brice, Alexis; Durr, Alexandra; Le Ber, Isabelle; Beach, Thomas G.; Serrano, Geidy E.; Hazrati, Lili-Naz; Litvan, Irene; Rademakers, Rosa; Ross, Owen A.; Galasko, Douglas; Boxer, Adam L.; Miller, Bruce L.; Seeley, Willian W.; Van Deerlin, Vivianna M.; Lee, Edward B.; White, Charles L., III; Morris, Huw R.; de Silva, Rohan; Crary, John F.; Goate, Alison M.; Friedman, Jeffrey S.; Leung, Yuk Yee; Coppola, Giovanni; Naj, Adam C.; Wang, Li-San; PSP genetics study group; Dickson, Dennis W.; Höglinger, Günter U.; Tzeng, Jung-Ying; Geschwind, Daniel H.; Schellenberg, Gerard D.; Lee, Wan-Ping; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Importance: The chromosome 17q21.31 region, containing a 900 Kb inversion that defines H1 and H2 haplotypes, represents the strongest genetic risk locus in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). In addition to H1 and H2, various structural forms of 17q21.31, characterized by the copy number of α, β, and γ duplications, have been identified. However, the specific effect of each structural form on the risk of PSP has never been evaluated in a large cohort study. Objective: To assess the association of different structural forms of 17q.21.31, defined by the copy numbers of α, β, and γ duplications, with the risk of PSP and MAPT sub-haplotypes. Design setting and participants: Utilizing whole genome sequencing data of 1,684 (1,386 autopsy confirmed) individuals with PSP and 2,392 control subjects, a case-control study was conducted to investigate the association of copy numbers of α, β, and γ duplications and structural forms of 17q21.31 with the risk of PSP. All study subjects were selected from the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) Umbrella NG00067.v7. Data were analyzed between March 2022 and November 2023. Main outcomes and measures: The main outcomes were the risk (odds ratios [ORs]) for PSP with 95% CIs. Risks for PSP were evaluated by logistic regression models. Results: The copy numbers of α and β were associated with the risk of PSP only due to their correlation with H1 and H2, while the copy number of γ was independently associated with the increased risk of PSP. Each additional duplication of γ was associated with 1.10 (95% CI, 1.04-1.17; P = 0.0018) fold of increased risk of PSP when conditioning H1 and H2. For the H1 haplotype, addition γ duplications displayed a higher odds ratio for PSP: the odds ratio increases from 1.21 (95%CI 1.10-1.33, P = 5.47 × 10-5) for H1β1γ1 to 1.29 (95%CI 1.16-1.43, P = 1.35 × 10-6) for H1β1γ2, 1.45 (95%CI 1.27-1.65, P = 3.94 × 10-8) for H1β1γ3, and 1.57 (95%CI 1.10-2.26, P = 1.35 × 10-2) for H1β1γ4. Moreover, H1β1γ3 is in linkage disequilibrium with H1c (R2 = 0.31), a widely recognized MAPT sub-haplotype associated with increased risk of PSP. The proportion of MAPT sub-haplotypes associated with increased risk of PSP (i.e., H1c, H1d, H1g, H1o, and H1h) increased from 34% in H1β1γ1 to 77% in H1β1γ4. Conclusions and relevance: This study revealed that the copy number of γ was associated with the risk of PSP independently from H1 and H2. The H1 haplotype with more γ duplications showed a higher odds ratio for PSP and were associated with MAPT sub-haplotypes with increased risk of PSP. These findings expand our understanding of how the complex structure at 17q21.31 affect the risk of PSP.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Brain volumetric deficits in MAPT mutation carriers: a multisite study
    (Wiley, 2021) Chu, Stephanie A.; Flagan, Taru M.; Staffaroni, Adam M.; Jiskoot, Lize C.; Deng, Jersey; Spina, Salvatore; Zhang, Liwen; Sturm, Virginia E.; Yokoyama, Jennifer S.; Seeley, William W.; Papma, Janne M.; Geschwind, Dan H.; Rosen, Howard J.; Boeve, Bradley F.; Boxer, Adam L.; Heuer, Hilary W.; Forsberg, Leah K.; Brushaber, Danielle E.; Grossman, Murray; Coppola, Giovanni; Dickerson, Bradford C.; Bordelon, Yvette M.; Faber, Kelley; Feldman, Howard H.; Fields, Julie A.; Fong, Jamie C.; Foroud, Tatiana; Gavrilova, Ralitza H.; Ghoshal, Nupur; Graff-Radford, Neill R.; Hsiung, Ging-Yuek Robin; Huey, Edward D.; Irwin, David J.; Kantarci, Kejal; Kaufer, Daniel I.; Karydas, Anna M.; Knopman, David S.; Kornak, John; Kramer, Joel H.; Kukull, Walter A.; Lapid, Maria I.; Litvan, Irene; Mackenzie, Ian R. A.; Mendez, Mario F.; Miller, Bruce L.; Onyike, Chiadi U.; Pantelyat, Alexander Y.; Rademakers, Rosa; Ramos, Eliana Marisa; Roberson, Erik D.; Tartaglia, Maria Carmela; Tatton, Nadine A.; Toga, Arthur W.; Vetor, Ashley; Weintraub, Sandra; Wong, Bonnie; Wszolek, Zbigniew K.; ARTFL/LEFFTDS Consortium; Van Swieten, John C.; Lee, Suzee E.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Objective: MAPT mutations typically cause behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia with or without parkinsonism. Previous studies have shown that symptomatic MAPT mutation carriers have frontotemporal atrophy, yet studies have shown mixed results as to whether presymptomatic carriers have low gray matter volumes. To elucidate whether presymptomatic carriers have lower structural brain volumes within regions atrophied during the symptomatic phase, we studied a large cohort of MAPT mutation carriers using a voxelwise approach. Methods: We studied 22 symptomatic carriers (age 54.7 ± 9.1, 13 female) and 43 presymptomatic carriers (age 39.2 ± 10.4, 21 female). Symptomatic carriers' clinical syndromes included: behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (18), an amnestic dementia syndrome (2), Parkinson's disease (1), and mild cognitive impairment (1). We performed voxel-based morphometry on T1 images and assessed brain volumetrics by clinical subgroup, age, and mutation subtype. Results: Symptomatic carriers showed gray matter atrophy in bilateral frontotemporal cortex, insula, and striatum, and white matter atrophy in bilateral corpus callosum and uncinate fasciculus. Approximately 20% of presymptomatic carriers had low gray matter volumes in bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, and lateral temporal cortex. Within these regions, low gray matter volumes emerged in a subset of presymptomatic carriers as early as their thirties. Low white matter volumes arose infrequently among presymptomatic carriers. Interpretation: A subset of presymptomatic MAPT mutation carriers showed low volumes in mesial temporal lobe, the region ubiquitously atrophied in all symptomatic carriers. With each decade of age, an increasing percentage of presymptomatic carriers showed low mesial temporal volume, suggestive of early neurodegeneration.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    C9orf72 Intermediate Repeats are Associated with Corticobasal Degeneration, Increased C9orf72 Expression and Disruption of Autophagy
    (Springer, 2019-11) Cali, Christopher P.; Patino, Maribel; Tai, Yee Kit; Ho, Wan Yun; McLean, Catriona A.; Morris, Christopher M.; Seeley, William W.; Miller, Bruce L.; Gaig, Carles; Vonsattel, Jean Paul G.; White, Charles L.; Roeber, Sigrun; Kretzschmar, Hans; Troncoso, Juan C.; Troakes, Claire; Gearing, Marla; Ghetti, Bernardino; Van Deerlin, Vivianna M.; Lee, Virginia M.-Y.; Trojanowski, John Q.; Mok, Kin Y.; Ling, Helen; Dickson, Dennis W.; Schellenberg, Gerard D.; Ling, Shuo-Chien; Lee, Edward B.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Microsatellite repeat expansion disease loci can exhibit pleiotropic clinical and biological effects depending on repeat length. Large expansions in C9orf72 (100s-1000s of units) are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD). However, whether intermediate expansions also contribute to neurodegenerative disease is not well understood. Several studies have identified intermediate repeats in Parkinson’s disease patients, but the association was not found in autopsy confirmed cases. We hypothesized that intermediate C9orf72 repeats are a genetic risk factor for corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a neurodegenerative disease that can be clinically similar to Parkinson’s but has distinct tau protein pathology. Indeed, intermediate C9orf72 repeats were significantly enriched in autopsy-proven CBD (n=354 cases, odds ratio=3.59, p-value=0.00024). While large C9orf72 repeat expansions are known to decrease C9orf72 expression, intermediate C9orf72 repeats result in increased C9orf72 expression in human brain tissue and CRISPR/cas9 knockin iPSC derived neural progenitor cells. In contrast to cases of FTD/ALS with large C9orf72 expansions, CBD with intermediate C9orf72 repeats was not associated with pathologic RNA foci or dipeptide repeat protein aggregates. Knock-in cells with intermediate repeats exhibit numerous changes in gene expression pathways relating to vesicle trafficking and autophagy. Additionally, overexpression of C9orf72 without the repeat expansion leads to defects in autophagy under nutrient starvation conditions. These results raise the possibility that therapeutic strategies to reduce C9orf72 expression may be beneficial for the treatment of CBD.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Clinicopathological correlations in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia
    (Oxford University Press, 2017-12-01) Perry, David C.; Brown, Jesse A.; Possin, Katherine L.; Datta, Samir; Trujillo, Andrew; Radke, Anneliese; Karydas, Anna; Kornak, John; Sias, Ana C.; Rabinovici, Gil D.; Gorno-Tempini, Maria Luisa; Boxer, Adam L.; May, Mary De; Rankin, Katherine P.; Sturm, Virginia E.; Lee, Suzee E.; Matthews, Brandy R.; Kao, Aimee W.; Vossel, Keith A.; Tartaglia, Maria Carmela; Miller, Zachary A.; Seo, Sang Won; Sidhu, Manu; Gaus, Stephanie E.; Nana, Alissa L.; Vargas, Jose Norberto S.; Hwang, Ji-Hye L.; Ossenkoppele, Rik; Brown, Alainna B.; Huang, Eric J.; Coppola, Giovanni; Rosen, Howard J.; Geschwind, Daniel; Trojanowski, John Q.; Grinberg, Lea T.; Kramer, Joel H.; Miller, Bruce L.; Seely, William W.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Accurately predicting the underlying neuropathological diagnosis in patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) poses a daunting challenge for clinicians but will be critical for the success of disease-modifying therapies. We sought to improve pathological prediction by exploring clinicopathological correlations in a large bvFTD cohort. Among 438 patients in whom bvFTD was either the top or an alternative possible clinical diagnosis, 117 had available autopsy data, including 98 with a primary pathological diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), 15 with Alzheimer's disease, and four with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who lacked neurodegenerative disease-related pathology outside of the motor system. Patients with FTLD were distributed between FTLD-tau (34 patients: 10 corticobasal degeneration, nine progressive supranuclear palsy, eight Pick's disease, three frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism associated with chromosome 17, three unclassifiable tauopathy, and one argyrophilic grain disease); FTLD-TDP (55 patients: nine type A including one with motor neuron disease, 27 type B including 21 with motor neuron disease, eight type C with right temporal lobe presentations, and 11 unclassifiable including eight with motor neuron disease), FTLD-FUS (eight patients), and one patient with FTLD-ubiquitin proteasome system positive inclusions (FTLD-UPS) that stained negatively for tau, TDP-43, and FUS. Alzheimer's disease was uncommon (6%) among patients whose only top diagnosis during follow-up was bvFTD. Seventy-nine per cent of FTLD-tau, 86% of FTLD-TDP, and 88% of FTLD-FUS met at least 'possible' bvFTD diagnostic criteria at first presentation. The frequency of the six core bvFTD diagnostic features was similar in FTLD-tau and FTLD-TDP, suggesting that these features alone cannot be used to separate patients by major molecular class. Voxel-based morphometry revealed that nearly all pathological subgroups and even individual patients share atrophy in anterior cingulate, frontoinsula, striatum, and amygdala, indicating that degeneration of these regions is intimately linked to the behavioural syndrome produced by these diverse aetiologies. In addition to these unifying features, symptom profiles also differed among pathological subtypes, suggesting distinct anatomical vulnerabilities and informing a clinician's prediction of pathological diagnosis. Data-driven classification into one of the 10 most common pathological diagnoses was most accurate (up to 60.2%) when using a combination of known predictive factors (genetic mutations, motor features, or striking atrophy patterns) and the results of a discriminant function analysis that incorporated clinical, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological data.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Correction: Whole-genome sequencing analysis reveals new susceptibility loci and structural variants associated with progressive supranuclear palsy
    (Springer Nature, 2024-10-14) Wang, Hui; Chang, Timothy S.; Dombroski, Beth A.; Cheng, Po-Liang; Patil, Vishakha; Valiente-Banuet, Leopoldo; Farrell, Kurt; Mclean, Catriona; Molina-Porcel, Laura; Rajput, Alex; De Deyn, Peter Paul; Le Bastard, Nathalie; Gearing, Marla; Donker Kaat, Laura; Van Swieten, John C.; Dopper, Elise; Ghetti, Bernardino F.; Newell, Kathy L.; Troakes, Claire; de Yébenes, Justo G.; Rábano-Gutierrez, Alberto; Meller, Tina; Oertel, Wolfgang H.; Respondek, Gesine; Stamelou, Maria; Arzberger, Thomas; Roeber, Sigrun; Müller, Ulrich; Hopfner, Franziska; Pastor, Pau; Brice, Alexis; Durr, Alexandra; Le Ber, Isabelle; Beach, Thomas G.; Serrano, Geidy E.; Hazrati, Lili-Naz; Litvan, Irene; Rademakers, Rosa; Ross, Owen A.; Galasko, Douglas; Boxer, Adam L.; Miller, Bruce L.; Seeley, Willian W.; Van Deerlin, Vivanna M.; Lee, Edward B.; White, Charles L., III; Morris, Huw; de Silva, Rohan; Crary, John F.; Goate, Alison M.; Friedman, Jeffrey S.; Leung, Yuk Yee; Coppola, Giovanni; Naj, Adam C.; Wang, Li-San; P. S. P. genetics study group; Dalgard, Clifton; Dickson, Dennis W.; Höglinger, Günter U.; Schellenberg, Gerard D.; Geschwind, Daniel H.; Lee, Wan-Ping; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Correction : Mol Neurodegeneration 19, 61 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-024-00747-3 The original article [1] erroneously gives a wrong affiliation for Ulrich Müller. His correct affiliation is Institute of Human Genetics, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Functional connectivity associations with markers of disease progression in GRN mutation carriers
    (Wiley, 2025-01-03) Flagan, Taru M.; Chu, Stephanie A.; Häkkinen, Suvi; Zhang, Liwen; McFall, David; Heller, Carolin; Rohrer, Jonathan D.; Brown, Jesse A.; Lee, Alex Jihun; Fernhoff, Kristen; Pasquini, Lorenzo; Mandelli, Maria Luisa; Gorno Tempini, Maria Luisa; Yokoyama, Jennifer S.; Sturm, Virginia; Appleby, Brian; Dickerson, Brad C.; Domoto-Reilly, Kimiko; Foroud, Tatiana M.; Geschwind, Daniel H.; Ghoshal, Nupur; Graff-Radford, Neill R.; Grossman, Murray; Hsiung, Ging-Yuek Robin; Huang, Eric J.; Huey, Edward D.; Kantarci, Kejal; Karydas, Anna M.; Kaufer, Daniel; Knopman, David S.; Litvan, Irene; MacKenzie, Ian R.; Mendez, Mario F.; Onyike, Chiadi U.; Petrucelli, Leonard; Ramos, Eliana Marisa; Roberson, Erik D.; Rojas, Julio C.; Tartaglia, Maria Carmela; Toga, Arthur W.; Weintraub, Sandra; Forsberg, Leah K.; Heuer, Hilary W.; Boeve, Brad F.; Boxer, Adam L.; Rosen, Howard J.; Miller, Bruce L.; Moreno, Fermin; Seeley, William W.; Lee, Suzee E.; ARTFL/LEFFTDS Consortia; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Autosomal dominant progranulin (GRN) mutations are a common genetic cause of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Though clinical trials for GRN‐related therapies are underway, there is an unmet need for biomarkers that can predict symptom onset and track disease progression. We previously showed that presymptomatic GRN carriers exhibit thalamocortical hyperconnectivity that increases with age when they are presumably closer to symptom onset. However, whether hyperconnectivity arises concomitantly with markers of neurodegeneration remains unclear. Method: Utilizing T1 and task‐free functional magnetic resonance imaging (tf‐fMRI) from 49 presymptomatic and 26 symptomatic GRN mutation carriers, we determined the relationships between functional connectivity as measured by voxel‐wise whole brain degree and GRN‐relevant markers of disease progression, which included plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) concentrations, CSF complement C1q and C3b protein levels, grey matter atrophy, and OCD symptom severity. Result: NfL concentrations were associated with frontotemporoparietal and thalamic hyperconnectivity in presymptomatic GRN carriers and extensive regions of atrophy in symptomatic carriers. Complement levels were associated with regions of hyperconnectivity, but not gray matter, in symptomatic carriers. Presymptomatic carriers with thalamic hyperconnectivity tended to have lower grey matter volume in bilateral insula and left lateral parietal cortex, which are among regions that deteriorate in GRN‐FTD. OCD symptom severity was associated with hypoconnectivity across all GRN carriers. Conclusion: In presymptomatic carriers, the co‐occurrence of hyperconnectivity, high NfL, and low gray matter suggests that tf‐fMRI hyperconnectivity may portend the onset of the neurodegenerative phase. These findings point toward hyperconnectivity as an indicator of approaching symptomatic onset.