Women live longer than men and exhibit less cognitive aging. The X chromosome contributes to sex differences, as females harbor an inactive X (Xi) and active X (Xa), in contrast to males with only an Xa. Thus, reactivation of silent Xi genes may contribute to sex differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease (AD) symptomatology, while classically studied through the lens of amyloid-β and tau burden, is likely also influenced by multiple-interacting co-pathologies like vascular disease and dysmetabolism. These co-pathologies, especially vascular disease, occur disparately in the Chinese-American population and are often treatable via therapeutics and lifestyle modifications. Given this, we explored whether plasma biomarkers, including an array of vascular-related proteins, associate with cognition in a cohort of 34 Chinese Americans clinically diagnosed as cognitively normal, with mild cognitive impairment, or with AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCross-sectional studies suggest a limited relationship between accelerated epigenetic aging derived from epigenetic clocks, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathophysiology or risk. However, most prior analyses have not utilized longitudinal analyses or whole-brain neuroimaging biomarkers of AD. Herein, we employed longitudinal modeling and structural neuroimaging analyses to test the hypothesis that accelerated epigenetic aging would predict AD progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Altered immune signatures are emerging as a central theme in neurodegenerative disease, yet little is known about immune responses in early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD).
Methods: We examined single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) data from CD4 T cells from participants with EOAD and clinically normal controls.
Results: We analyzed PBMCs from 16 individuals by scRNA-seq and discovered increased interferon signaling-associated gene (ISAG) expression and striking expansion of antiviral-like ISAG T cells in EOAD.
Introduction: A hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) intronic to chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 () is recognized as the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and ALS-FTD. Identifying genes that show similar regional co-expression patterns to may help identify novel gene targets and biological mechanisms that mediate selective vulnerability to ALS and FTD pathogenesis.
Methods: We leveraged mRNA expression data in healthy brain from the Allen Human Brain Atlas to evaluate co-expression patterns.
Importance: Metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) have limited systemic therapy options, and immunomodulation has not yet meaningfully improved outcomes. Intratumoral (IT) injection of the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonist glycopyranosyl lipid A in stable-emulsion formulation (GLA-SE) has been studied as immunotherapy in other contexts.
Objective: To evaluate the safety, efficacy, and immunomodulatory effects of IT GLA-SE with concurrent radiotherapy in patients with metastatic STS with injectable lesions.
Introduction: Altered immune signatures are emerging as a central theme in neurodegenerative disease, yet little is known about immune responses in early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD).
Methods: We examined single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and droplet digital (dd)PCR data from CD4 T cells from participants with EOAD and clinically normal controls.
Results: We analyzed ~182,000 PBMCs by scRNA-seq and discovered increased interferon signaling-associated gene (ISAG) expression and striking expansion of antiviral-like ISAG T cells in EOAD.
Alzheimers Dement (Amst)
September 2023
Introduction: A hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) intronic to chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 () is recognized as the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and ALS-FTD. Identifying genes that show similar regional co-expression patterns to may help identify novel gene targets and biological mechanisms that mediate selective vulnerability to ALS and FTD pathogenesis.
Methods: We leveraged mRNA expression data in healthy brain from the Allen Human Brain Atlas to evaluate co-expression patterns.
Background: Emerging evidence from mouse models is beginning to elucidate the brain's immune response to tau pathology, but little is known about the nature of this response in humans. In addition, it remains unclear to what extent tau pathology and the local inflammatory response within the brain influence the broader immune system.
Methods: To address these questions, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from carriers of pathogenic variants in MAPT, the gene encoding tau (n = 8), and healthy non-carrier controls (n = 8).
Prcis: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) estimated retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness associated with glaucoma-related disability independent of the visual field (VF) damage and thus may provide additional patient-relevant disability information beyond what is captured by standard VF testing.
Purpose: To examine whether OCT metrics [peripapillary RNFL thickness and macular ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness] are associated with quality of life (QoL) measures and additional disability metrics, and whether these associations are independent of VF damage.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 156 patients with glaucoma or suspected glaucoma received VF testing and OCT scans to measure RNFL and GCIPL thickness.
Hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) within is the most common genetic cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Thalamic atrophy occurs in both sporadic and familial FTD but is thought to distinctly affect HRE carriers. Separately, emerging evidence suggests widespread derepression of transposable elements (TEs) in the brain in several neurodegenerative diseases, including HRE-mediated FTD (C9-FTD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF-related leukoencephalopathy is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R). Several studies have found that hematogenic stem cell transplantation is an effective disease modifying therapy however the literature regarding prodromal and early symptoms -related leukoencephalopathy is limited. We describe a 63-year-old patient with 4 years of repetitive scratching and skin picking behavior followed by 10 years of progressive behavioral, cognitive, and motor decline in a pattern suggesting behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) is a rare but particularly devastating form of AD. Though notable for its high degree of clinical heterogeneity, EOAD is defined by the same neuropathological hallmarks underlying the more common, late-onset form of AD. In this review, we describe the various clinical syndromes associated with EOAD, including the typical amnestic phenotype as well as atypical variants affecting visuospatial, language, executive, behavioral, and motor functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroglia play a critical but poorly understood role in promoting white-matter homeostasis. In this review, we leverage advances in human genetics and mouse models of leukodystrophies to delineate our current knowledge and identify outstanding questions regarding the impact of microglia on central nervous system white matter. We first focus on the role of pathogenic mutations in genes, such as , and that cause leukodystrophies in which the primary deficit is thought to originate in microglia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInjury to the pudendal nerve in men presents with pain, paresthesia, or numbness of the perineum, and/or scrotum, and/or penis. There is evidence implicating the brachytherapy seeds used to treat prostate cancer as source of pudendal nerve injury. Compared to surgical prostatectomy, brachytherapy has the advantage of being less invasive, but seeds may not only lead to well-established complications such as urinary, bowel, and erectile dysfunction, but also injury to the sensory branches of the pudendal nerve.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that clinically used magnetic resonance (MR)-conditional needles of varying lengths, orientations, locations, and pulse sequences can result in excessive heating during MR imaging (MRI)-guided interventions that can be minimized to physiological ranges with proper selection of the needle length, needle position, and modification of pulse sequence parameters.
Materials And Methods: We simulated a clinical interventional MRI setting with 2 standard American Society for Testing and Materials F2182-11A phantoms and measured temperatures with fiber optic sensors. Temperature profiles were monitored for commercial 10, 15 and 20 cm MR-conditional cobalt-chromium needles in clinically relevant perpendicular, 45-degree oblique, and parallel orientations relative to the static magnetic field (B0) and center, right off-center, and left off-center needle tip locations in the z = 0 plane.
We conducted genome sequencing to search for rare variation contributing to early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Discovery analysis was conducted on 435 cases and 671 controls of European ancestry. Burden testing for rare variation associated with disease was conducted using filters based on variant rarity (less than one in 10,000 or private), computational prediction of deleteriousness (CADD) (10 or 15 thresholds), and molecular function (protein loss-of-function [LoF] only, coding alteration only, or coding plus non-coding variants in experimentally predicted regulatory regions).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAJNR Am J Neuroradiol
January 2020
Background And Purpose: Imaging evaluation of ventriculostomy tubes, despite the frequency of malfunction, has remained inadequate due to the absence of a systematic way of assessing the catheter itself. In this retrospective review, we assessed the utility of high-resolution 3D MR imaging techniques, including CISS and volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination sequences, in the evaluation of ventriculostomy catheters.
Materials And Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 23 clinical MR imaging cases of shunted hydrocephalus spanning a 3-year period, all depicting ventriculostomy catheters.