Browsing by Subject "Frontotemporal lobar degeneration"

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    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.
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    Lewy Body Disease is a Contributor to Logopenic Progressive Aphasia Phenotype
    (Wiley, 2021) Buciuc, Marina; Whitwell, Jennifer L.; Kasanuki, Koji; Graff-Radford, Jonathan; Machulda, Mary M.; Duffy, Joseph R.; Strand, Edythe A.; Lowe, Val J.; Graff-Radford, Neill R.; Rush, Beth K.; Franczak, Malgorzata B.; Flanagan, Margaret E.; Baker, Matthew C.; Rademakers, Rosa; Ross, Owen A.; Ghetti, Bernardino F.; Parisi, Joseph E.; Raghunathan, Aditya; Reichard, R. Ross; Bigio, Eileen H.; Dickson, Dennis W.; Josephs, Keith A.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Objective: The objective of this study was to describe clinical features, [18 F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) metabolism and digital pathology in patients with logopenic progressive aphasia (LPA) and pathologic diagnosis of diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD) and compare to patients with LPA with other pathologies, as well as patients with classical features of probable dementia with Lewy bodies (pDLB). Methods: This is a clinicopathologic case-control study of 45 patients, including 20 prospectively recruited patients with LPA among whom 6 were diagnosed with LPA-DLBD. We analyzed clinical features and compared FDG-PET metabolism in LPA-DLBD to an independent group of patients with clinical pDLB and regional α-synuclein burden on digital pathology to a second independent group of autopsied patients with DLBD pathology and antemortem pDLB (DLB-DLBD). Results: All patients with LPA-DLBD were men. Neurological, speech, and neuropsychological characteristics were similar across LPA-DLBD, LPA-Alzheimer's disease (LPA-AD), and LPA-frontotemporal lobar degeneration (LPA-FTLD). Genetic screening of AD, DLBD, and FTLD linked genes were negative with the exception of APOE ε4 allele present in 83% of LPA-DLBD patients. Seventy-five percent of the patients with LPA-DLBD showed a parietal-dominant pattern of hy pometabolism; LPA-FTLD - temporal-dominant pattern, whereas LPA-AD showed heterogeneous patterns of hypometabolism. LPA-DLBD had more asymmetrical hypometabolism affecting frontal lobes, with relatively spared occipital lobe in the nondominantly affected hemisphere, compared to pDLB. LPA-DLBD had minimal atrophy on gross brain examination, higher cortical Lewy body counts, and higher α-synuclein burden in the middle frontal and inferior parietal cortices compared to DLB-DLBD. Interpretation: Whereas AD is the most frequent underlying pathology of LPA, DLBD can also be present and may contribute to the LPA phenotype possibly due to α-synuclein-associated functional impairment of the dominant parietal lobe.
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    A novel SNCA E83Q mutation in a case of dementia with Lewy bodies and atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration
    (Wiley, 2020-12) Kapasi, Alifiya; Brosch, Jared R.; Nudelman, Kelly N.; Agrawal, Sonal; Foroud, Tatiana M.; Schneider, Julie A.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    In this case report, we discuss a patient presenting with parkinsonism followed by a non-amnestic dementia with aphasic clinical features, as well as frontal dysexecutive syndrome. There was a family history of dementia with an autopsy diagnosis of "Pick's disease" in the proband's father. Neuroimaging of the patient revealed focal and severe temporal lobe and lesser frontoparietal lobe atrophy. At autopsy, there was severe frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Histologic evaluation revealed an absence of tau or transactivation response DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP) pathology but rather severe Lewy body deposition in the affected cortices. Genetic phenotyping revealed a novel missense mutation (p.E83Q) in exon 4 of the gene encoding α-synuclein (SNCA). This case study presents a patient with a novel SNCA E83Q mutation associated with widespread Lewy body pathology with prominent severe atrophy of the frontotemporal lobes and corresponding cognitive impairment.
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    Pathological phosphorylation of tau and TDP-43 by TTBK1 and TTBK2 drives neurodegeneration
    (BioMed Central, 2018-02-06) Taylor, Laura M.; McMillan, Pamela J.; Liachko, Nicole F.; Strovas, Timothy J.; Ghetti, Bernardino; Bird, Thomas D.; Keene, C. Dirk; Kraemer, Brian C.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND: Progressive neuron loss in the frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex typifies frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). FTLD sub types are classified on the basis of neuronal aggregated protein deposits, typically containing either aberrantly phosphorylated TDP-43 or tau. Our recent work demonstrated that tau tubulin kinases 1 and 2 (TTBK1/2) robustly phosphorylate TDP-43 and co-localize with phosphorylated TDP-43 in human postmortem neurons from FTLD patients. Both TTBK1 and TTBK2 were initially identified as tau kinases and TTBK1 has been shown to phosphorylate tau epitopes commonly observed in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. METHODS: To further elucidate how TTBK1/2 activity contributes to both TDP-43 and tau phosphorylation in the context of the neurodegeneration seen in FTLD, we examined the consequences of elevated human TTBK1/2 kinase expression in transgenic animal models of disease. RESULTS: We show that C. elegans co-expressing tau/TTBK1 tau/TTBK2, or TDP-43/TTBK1 transgenes in combination exhibit synergistic exacerbation of behavioral abnormalities and increased pathological protein phosphorylation. We also show that C. elegans co-expressing tau/TTBK1 or tau/TTBK2 transgenes in combination exhibit aberrant neuronal architecture and neuron loss. Surprisingly, the TTBK2/TDP-43 transgenic combination showed no exacerbation of TDP-43 proteinopathy related phenotypes. Additionally, we observed elevated TTBK1/2 protein expression in cortical and hippocampal neurons of FTLD-tau and FTLD-TDP cases relative to normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a possible etiology for the two most common FTLD subtypes through a kinase activation driven mechanism of neurodegeneration.
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    The phosphatase calcineurin regulates pathological TDP-43 phosphorylation
    (Springer, 2016-10) Liachko, Nicole F.; Saxton, Aleen D.; McMillan, Pamela J.; Strovas, Timothy J.; Currey, Heather N.; Taylor, Laura M.; Wheeler, Jeanna M.; Oblak, Adrian L.; Ghetti, Bernardino; Montine, Thomas J.; Keene, C. Dirk; Raskind, Murray A.; Bird, Thomas D.; Kraemer, Brian C.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Detergent insoluble inclusions of TDP-43 protein are hallmarks of the neuropathology in over 90% of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases and approximately half of frontotemporal dementia (FTLD-TDP) cases. In TDP-43 proteinopathy disorders, lesions containing aggregated TDP-43 protein are extensively post-translationally modified, with phosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP) being the most consistent and robust marker of pathological TDP-43 deposition. Abnormally phosphorylated TDP-43 has been hypothesized to mediate TDP-43 toxicity in many neurodegenerative disease models. To date several different kinases have been implicated in the genesis of pTDP, but no phosphatases have been shown to reverse pathological TDP-43 phosphorylation. We have identified the phosphatase calcineurin as an enzyme binding to and catalyzing the removal of pathological C-terminal phosphorylation of TDP-43 in vitro. In C. elegans models of TDP-43 proteinopathy, genetic elimination of calcineurin results in accumulation of excess pTDP, exacerbated motor dysfunction, and accelerated neurodegenerative changes. In cultured human cells, treatment with FK506 (tacrolimus), a calcineurin inhibitor, results in accumulation of pTDP species. Lastly, calcineurin co-localizes with pTDP in degenerating areas of the central nervous system in subjects with FTLD-TDP and ALS. Taken together these findings suggest calcineurin acts on pTDP as a phosphatase in neurons. Furthermore, patient treatment with calcineurin inhibitors may have unappreciated adverse neuropathological consequences.
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    Plasma Neurofilament Light for Prediction of Disease Progression in Familial Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration
    (American Academy of Neurology, 2021-05-04) Rojas, Julio C.; Wang, Ping; Staffaroni, Adam M.; Heller, Carolin; Cobigo, Yann; Wolf, Amy; Goh, Sheng-Yang M.; Ljubenkov, Peter A.; Heuer, Hilary W.; Fong, Jamie C.; Taylor, Joanne B.; Veras, Eliseo; Song, Linan; Jeromin, Andreas; Hanlon, David; Yu, Lili; Khinikar, Arvind; Sivasankaran, Rajeev; Kieloch, Agnieszka; Valentin, Marie-Anne; Karydas, Anna M.; Mitic, Laura L.; Pearlman, Rodney; Kornak, John; Kramer, Joel H.; Miller, Bruce L.; Kantarci, Kejal; Knopman, David S.; Graff-Radford, Neill; Petrucelli, Leonard; Rademakers, Rosa; Irwin, David J.; Grossman, Murray; Ramos, Eliana Marisa; Coppola, Giovanni; Mendez, Mario F.; Bordelon, Yvette; Dickerson, Bradford C.; Ghoshal, Nupur; Huey, Edward D.; Mackenzie, Ian R.; Appleby, Brian S.; Domoto-Reilly, Kimiko; Hsiung, Ging-Yuek R.; Toga, Arthur W.; Weintraub, Sandra; Kaufer, Daniel I.; Kerwin, Diana; Litvan, Irene; Onyike, Chiadikaobi U.; Pantelyat, Alexander; Roberson, Erik D.; Tartaglia, Maria C.; Foroud, Tatiana; Chen, Weiping; Czerkowicz, Julie; Graham, Danielle L.; van Swieten, John C.; Borroni, Barbara; Sanchez-Valle, Raquel; Moreno, Fermin; Laforce, Robert; Graff, Caroline; Synofzik, Matthis; Galimberti, Daniela; Rowe, James B.; James B., Mario; Finger, Elizabeth; Vandenberghe, Rik; de Mendonça, Alexandre; Tagliavini, Fabrizio; Santana, Isabel; Ducharme, Simon; Butler, Chris R.; Gerhard, Alexander; Levin, Johannes; Danek, Adrian; Otto, Markus; Sorbi, Sandro; Cash, David M.; Convery, Rhian S.; Bocchetta, Martina; Foiani, Martha; Greaves, Caroline V.; Peakman, Georgia; Russell, Lucy; Swift, Imogen; Todd, Emily; Rohrer, Jonathan D.; Boeve, Bradley F.; Rosen, Howard J.; Boxer, Adam L.; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Objective: We tested the hypothesis that plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) identifies asymptomatic carriers of familial frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD)-causing mutations at risk of disease progression. Methods: Baseline plasma NfL concentrations were measured with single-molecule array in original (n = 277) and validation (n = 297) cohorts. C9orf72, GRN, and MAPT mutation carriers and noncarriers from the same families were classified by disease severity (asymptomatic, prodromal, and full phenotype) using the CDR Dementia Staging Instrument plus behavior and language domains from the National Alzheimer's Disease Coordinating Center FTLD module (CDR+NACC-FTLD). Linear mixed-effect models related NfL to clinical variables. Results: In both cohorts, baseline NfL was higher in asymptomatic mutation carriers who showed phenoconversion or disease progression compared to nonprogressors (original: 11.4 ± 7 pg/mL vs 6.7 ± 5 pg/mL, p = 0.002; validation: 14.1 ± 12 pg/mL vs 8.7 ± 6 pg/mL, p = 0.035). Plasma NfL discriminated symptomatic from asymptomatic mutation carriers or those with prodromal disease (original cutoff: 13.6 pg/mL, 87.5% sensitivity, 82.7% specificity; validation cutoff: 19.8 pg/mL, 87.4% sensitivity, 84.3% specificity). Higher baseline NfL correlated with worse longitudinal CDR+NACC-FTLD sum of boxes scores, neuropsychological function, and atrophy, regardless of genotype or disease severity, including asymptomatic mutation carriers. Conclusions: Plasma NfL identifies asymptomatic carriers of FTLD-causing mutations at short-term risk of disease progression and is a potential tool to select participants for prevention clinical trials. Trial registration information: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02372773 and NCT02365922. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class I evidence that in carriers of FTLD-causing mutations, elevation of plasma NfL predicts short-term risk of clinical progression.
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    TDP-43 forms amyloid filaments with a distinct fold in type A FTLD-TDP
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Arseni, Diana; Chen, Renren; Murzin, Alexey G.; Peak-Chew, Sew Y.; Garringer, Holly J.; Newell, Kathy L.; Kametani, Fuyuki; Robinson, Andrew C.; Vidal, Ruben; Ghetti, Bernardino; Hasegawa, Masato; Ryskeldi-Falcon, Benjamin; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    The abnormal assembly of TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) in neuronal and glial cells characterizes nearly all cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and around half of cases of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD)1,2. A causal role for TDP-43 assembly in neurodegeneration is evidenced by dominantly inherited missense mutations in TARDBP, the gene encoding TDP-43, that promote assembly and give rise to ALS and FTLD3-7. At least four types (A-D) of FTLD with TDP-43 pathology (FTLD-TDP) are defined by distinct brain distributions of assembled TDP-43 and are associated with different clinical presentations of frontotemporal dementia8. We previously showed, using cryo-electron microscopy, that TDP-43 assembles into amyloid filaments in ALS and type B FTLD-TDP9. However, the structures of assembled TDP-43 in FTLD without ALS remained unknown. Here we report the cryo-electron microscopy structures of assembled TDP-43 from the brains of three individuals with the most common type of FTLD-TDP, type A. TDP-43 formed amyloid filaments with a new fold that was the same across individuals, indicating that this fold may characterize type A FTLD-TDP. The fold resembles a chevron badge and is unlike the double-spiral-shaped fold of ALS and type B FTLD-TDP, establishing that distinct filament folds of TDP-43 characterize different neurodegenerative conditions. The structures, in combination with mass spectrometry, led to the identification of two new post-translational modifications of assembled TDP-43, citrullination and monomethylation of R293, and indicate that they may facilitate filament formation and observed structural variation in individual filaments. The structures of TDP-43 filaments from type A FTLD-TDP will guide mechanistic studies of TDP-43 assembly, as well as the development of diagnostic and therapeutic compounds for TDP-43 proteinopathies.
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    Temporal order of clinical and biomarker changes in familial frontotemporal dementia
    (Springer Nature, 2022) Staffaroni, Adam M.; Quintana, Melanie; Wendelberger, Barbara; Heuer, Hilary W.; Russell, Lucy L.; Cobigo, Yann; Wolf, Amy; Goh, Sheng-Yang Matt; Petrucelli, Leonard; Gendron, Tania F.; Heller, Carolin; Clark, Annie L.; Taylor, Jack Carson; Wise, Amy; Ong, Elise; Forsberg, Leah; Brushaber, Danielle; Rojas, Julio C.; VandeVrede, Lawren; Ljubenkov, Peter; Kramer, Joel; Casaletto, Kaitlin B.; Appleby, Brian; Bordelon, Yvette; Botha, Hugo; Dickerson, Bradford C.; Domoto-Reilly, Kimiko; Fields, Julie A.; Foroud, Tatiana; Gavrilova, Ralitza; Geschwind, Daniel; Ghoshal, Nupur; Goldman, Jill; Graff-Radford, Jonathon; Graff-Radford, Neill; Grossman, Murray; Hall, Matthew G. H.; Hsiung, Ging-Yuek; Huey, Edward D.; Irwin, David; Jones, David T.; Kantarci, Kejal; Kaufer, Daniel; Knopman, David; Kremers, Walter; Lago, Argentina Lario; Lapid, Maria I.; Litvan, Irene; Lucente, Diane; Mackenzie, Ian R.; Mendez, Mario F.; Mester, Carly; Miller, Bruce L.; Onyike, Chiadi U.; Rademakers, Rosa; Ramanan, Vijay K.; Ramos, Eliana Marisa; Rao, Meghana; Rascovsky, Katya; Rankin, Katherine P.; Roberson, Erik D.; Savica, Rodolfo; Tartaglia, M. Carmela; Weintraub, Sandra; Wong, Bonnie; Cash, David M.; Bouzigues, Arabella; Swift, Imogen J.; Peakman, Georgia; Bocchetta, Martina; Todd, Emily G.; Convery, Rhian S.; Rowe, James B.; Borroni, Barbara; Galimberti, Daniela; Tiraboschi, Pietro; Masellis, Mario; Finger, Elizabeth; van Swieten, John C.; Seelaar, Harro; Jiskoot, Lize C.; Sorbi, Sandro; Butler, Chris R.; Graff, Caroline; Gerhard, Alexander; Langheinrich, Tobias; Laforce, Robert; Sanchez-Valle, Raquel; de Mendonça, Alexandre; Moreno, Fermin; Synofzik, Matthis; Vandenberghe, Rik; Ducharme, Simon; Le Ber, Isabelle; Levin, Johannes; Danek, Adrian; Otto, Markus; Pasquier, Florence; Santana, Isabel; Kornak, John; Boeve, Bradley F.; Rosen, Howard J.; Rohrer, Jonathan D.; Boxer, Adam L.; Frontotemporal Dementia Prevention Initiative (FPI) Investigators; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Unlike familial Alzheimer’s disease, we have been unable to accurately predict symptom onset in presymptomatic familial frontotemporal dementia (f-FTD) mutation carriers, which is a major hurdle to designing disease prevention trials. We developed multimodal models for f-FTD disease progression and estimated clinical trial sample sizes in C9orf72, GRN, and MAPT mutation carriers. Models included longitudinal clinical and neuropsychological scores, regional brain volumes, and plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) in 796 carriers and 412 non-carrier controls. We found that the temporal ordering of clinical and biomarker progression differed by genotype. In prevention-trial simulations employing model-based patient selection, atrophy and NfL were the best endpoints, whereas clinical measures were potential endpoints in early symptomatic trials. F-FTD prevention trials are feasible but will likely require global recruitment efforts. These disease progression models will facilitate the planning of f-FTD clinical trials, including the selection of optimal endpoints and enrollment criteria to maximize power to detect treatment effects.
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    The tauopathies: Neuroimaging characteristics and emerging experimental therapies
    (Wiley, 2022) Riley, Kalen J.; Graner, Brian D.; Veronesi, Michael C.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    The tauopathies are a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders in which the prevailing underlying disease process is intracellular deposition of abnormal misfolded tau protein. Diseases often categorized as tauopathies include progressive supranuclear palsy, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, corticobasal degeneration, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Tauopathies can be classified through clinical assessment, imaging findings, histologic validation, or molecular biomarkers tied to the underlying disease mechanism. Many tauopathies vary in their clinical presentation and overlap substantially in presentation, making clinical diagnosis of a specific primary tauopathy difficult. Anatomic imaging findings are also rarely specific to a single tauopathy, and when present may not manifest until well after the point at which therapy may be most impactful. Molecular biomarkers hold the most promise for patient care and form a platform upon which emerging diagnostic and therapeutic applications could be developed. One of the most exciting developments utilizing these molecular biomarkers for assessment of tau deposition within the brain is tau‐PET imaging utilizing novel ligands that specifically target tau protein. This review will discuss the background, significance, and clinical presentation of each tauopathy with additional attention to the pathologic mechanisms at the protein level. The imaging characteristics will be outlined with select examples of emerging imaging techniques. Finally, current treatment options and emerging therapies will be discussed. This is by no means a comprehensive review of the literature but is instead intended for the practicing radiologist as an overview of a rapidly evolving topic.