VCP regulates early tau seed amplification via specific cofactors.

Background: Neurodegenerative tauopathies may progress based on seeding by pathological tau assemblies, whereby an aggregate is released from one cell, gains entry to an adjacent or connected cell, and serves as a specific template for its own replication in the cytoplasm. Seeding into the complex cytoplasmic milieu happens within hours, implying the existence of unknown factors that regulate this process.

Methods: We used proximity labeling to identify proteins that control seed amplification within 5 h of seed exposure.

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Neuropathology Core: An update.

Introduction: Biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change (ADNC) have been instrumental in developing effective disease-modifying therapeutics. However, to prevent/treat dementia effectively, we require biomarkers for non-AD neuropathologies; for this, neuropathologic examinations and annotated tissue samples are essential.

Methods: We conducted clinicopathologic correlation for the first 100 Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) Neuropathology Core (NPC) cases.

VCP regulates early tau seed amplification via specific cofactors.

Background: Neurodegenerative tauopathies may progress based on seeding by pathological tau assemblies, whereby an aggregate is released from one cell, gains entry to an adjacent or connected cell, and serves as a specific template for its own replication in the cytoplasm. In vitro seeding reactions typically take days, yet seeding into the complex cytoplasmic milieu happens within hours, implicating a machinery with unknown players that controls this process in the acute phase.

Methods: We used proximity labeling to identify factors that control seed amplification within 5h of seed exposure.

α-Synuclein seed amplification assay detects Lewy body co-pathology in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease late in the disease course and dependent on Lewy pathology burden.

Introduction: Amyloid beta and tau pathology are the hallmarks of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) and autosomal dominant AD (ADAD). However, Lewy body pathology (LBP) is found in ≈ 50% of AD and ADAD brains.

Methods: Using an α-synuclein seed amplification assay (SAA) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from asymptomatic (n = 26) and symptomatic (n = 27) ADAD mutation carriers, including 12 with known neuropathology, we investigated the timing of occurrence and prevalence of SAA positive reactivity in ADAD in vivo.

VCP increases or decreases tau seeding using specific cofactors.

Background: Neurodegenerative tauopathies may progress based on seeding by pathological tau assemblies, whereby an aggregate is released from one cell, gains entry to an adjacent or connected cell, and serves as a specific template for its own replication in the cytoplasm. seeding reactions typically take days, yet seeding into the complex cytoplasmic milieu can happen within hours. A cellular machinery might regulate this process, but potential players are unknown.

Neocortical Lewy Body Pathology Parallels Parkinson's Dementia, but Not Always.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between Parkinson's disease (PD) with dementia and cortical proteinopathies in a large population of pathologically confirmed patients with PD.

Methods: We reviewed clinical data from all patients with autopsy data seen in the Movement Disorders Center at Washington University, St. Louis, between 1996 and 2019.

Pattern and implications of neurological examination findings in autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.

Introduction: As knowledge about neurological examination findings in autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (ADAD) is incomplete, we aimed to determine the frequency and significance of neurological examination findings in ADAD.

Methods: Frequencies of neurological examination findings were compared between symptomatic mutation carriers and non mutation carriers from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) to define AD neurological examination findings. AD neurological examination findings were analyzed regarding frequency, association with and predictive value regarding cognitive decline, and association with brain atrophy in symptomatic mutation carriers.

Autosomal dominant and sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease share a common in vivo pathophysiology.

The extent to which the pathophysiology of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease corresponds to the pathophysiology of 'sporadic' late onset Alzheimer's disease is unknown, thus limiting the extrapolation of study findings and clinical trial results in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease to late onset Alzheimer's disease. We compared brain MRI and amyloid PET data, as well as CSF concentrations of amyloid-β42, amyloid-β40, tau and tau phosphorylated at position 181, in 292 carriers of pathogenic variants for Alzheimer's disease from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, with corresponding data from 559 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Imaging data and CSF samples were reprocessed as appropriate to guarantee uniform pipelines and assays.

Quantifying regional α -synuclein, amyloid β, and tau accumulation in lewy body dementia.

Objective: Parkinson disease (PD) is defined by the accumulation of misfolded α-synuclein (α-syn) in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. It affects multiple cortical and subcortical neuronal populations. The majority of people with PD develop dementia, which is associated with Lewy bodies in neocortex and referred to as Lewy body dementia (LBD).

Comparing amyloid-β plaque burden with antemortem PiB PET in autosomal dominant and late-onset Alzheimer disease.

Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) radiotracer for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can bind to different types of amyloid-β plaques and blood vessels (cerebral amyloid angiopathy). However, the relative contributions of different plaque subtypes (diffuse versus cored/compact) to in vivo PiB PET signal on a region-by-region basis are incompletely understood. Of particular interest is whether the same staging schemes for summarizing amyloid-β burden are appropriate for both late-onset and autosomal dominant forms of Alzheimer disease (LOAD and ADAD).

Hippocampal neurobiology and function in an aged mouse model of TDP-43 proteinopathy in an APP/PSEN1 background.

Aging is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia worldwide. TDP-43 proteinopathy is reported to be associated with AD pathology is almost 50% of cases. Our exploratory study examined near end-stage (28 months old) mice selectively driving expression of human TDP-43 in the hippocampus and cortex in an APP/PSEN1 background.

Cytonuclear discordance in the crowned-sparrows, Zonotrichia atricapilla and Zonotrichia leucophrys.

The golden-crowned (Zonotrichia atricapilla) and white-crowned (Z. leucophrys) sparrows have been presented as a compelling case for rapid speciation. They display divergence in song and plumage with overlap in their breeding ranges implying reproductive isolation, but have almost identical mitochondrial genomes.

The Second NINDS/NIBIB Consensus Meeting to Define Neuropathological Criteria for the Diagnosis of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with exposure to head trauma. In 2015, a panel of neuropathologists funded by the NINDS/NIBIB defined preliminary consensus neuropathological criteria for CTE, including the pathognomonic lesion of CTE as "an accumulation of abnormal hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) in neurons and astroglia distributed around small blood vessels at the depths of cortical sulci and in an irregular pattern," based on review of 25 tauopathy cases. In 2016, the consensus panel met again to review and refine the preliminary criteria, with consideration around the minimum threshold for diagnosis and the reproducibility of a proposed pathological staging scheme.

Effusive-constrictive cholesterol pericarditis: a case report.

Background: Cholesterol pericarditis (CP) remains a rare pericardial disease characterized by chronic pericardial effusions with high cholesterol concentrations with or without the formation of cholesterol crystals. Effusions are often large and can cause ventricular compression and subsequent pericardial adhesion formation. CP can be idiopathic but has associations with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), tuberculosis and hypothyroidism.

Genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease influences neuropathology via multiple biological pathways.

Alzheimer's disease is a highly heritable, common neurodegenerative disease characterized neuropathologically by the accumulation of β-amyloid plaques and tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles. In addition to the well-established risk associated with the locus, there has been considerable success in identifying additional genetic variants associated with Alzheimer's disease. Major challenges in understanding how genetic risk influences the development of Alzheimer's disease are clinical and neuropathological heterogeneity, and the high level of accompanying comorbidities.

Early Selective Vulnerability of the CA2 Hippocampal Subfield in Primary Age-Related Tauopathy.

Primary age-related tauopathy (PART) is a neurodegenerative entity defined as Alzheimer-type neurofibrillary degeneration primarily affecting the medial temporal lobe with minimal to absent amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque deposition. The extent to which PART can be differentiated pathoanatomically from Alzheimer disease (AD) is unclear. Here, we examined the regional distribution of tau pathology in a large cohort of postmortem brains (n = 914).

Cytonuclear discordance, reticulation and cryptic diversity in one of North America's most common frogs.

Complicated phylogenetic histories benefit from diverse sources of inference. Pseudacris crucifer (spring peeper) spans most of eastern North America and comprises six mtDNA lineages that form multiple contact zones. The putative Miocene or early Pliocene origins of the oldest lineages within Pseudacris crucifer imply sufficient time for species-level divergence.

Is Levodopa Response a Valid Indicator of Parkinson's Disease?

Background: The clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) requires the presence of parkinsonism and supportive criteria that include a clear and dramatic beneficial response to dopaminergic therapy. Our aim was to test the diagnostic criterion of dopaminergic response by evaluating its association with pathologically confirmed diagnoses in a large population of parkinsonian patients.

Methods: We reviewed clinical data maintained in an electronic medical record from all patients with autopsy data who had been seen in the Movement Disorders Center at Washington University, St.

Functional genomic analyses uncover APOE-mediated regulation of brain and cerebrospinal fluid beta-amyloid levels in Parkinson disease.

Alpha-synuclein is the main protein component of Lewy bodies, the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease. However, genetic modifiers of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) alpha-synuclein levels remain unknown. The use of CSF levels of amyloid beta, total tau, and phosphorylated tau as quantitative traits in genetic studies have provided novel insights into Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology.

Ante- and postmortem tau in autosomal dominant and late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Antemortem tau positron emission tomography imaging suggests elevated tau pathology in autosomal dominant versus late-onset Alzheimer's disease at equivalent clinical stages, but does not implicate the specific tau pathologies responsible. Here we made stereological measurements of tau neurofibrillary tangles, neuritic plaques, and neuropil threads and found compared to late-onset Alzheimer's disease, autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease showed even greater tangle and thread burdens. Regional tau burden resembled that observed in tau imaging of a separate cohort at earlier clinical stages.

Parkinson disease clinical subtypes: key features & clinical milestones.

Objectives: Based on multi-domain classification of Parkinson disease (PD) subtypes, we sought to determine the key features that best differentiate subtypes and the utility of PD subtypes to predict clinical milestones.

Methods: Prospective cohort of 162 PD participants with ongoing, longitudinal follow-up. Latent class analysis (LCA) delineated subtypes based on score patterns across baseline motor, cognitive, and psychiatric measures.