Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be diagnosed by in vivo abnormalities of amyloid-β plaques (A) and tau accumulation (T) biomarkers. Previous studies have shown that analyses of serial position performance in episodic memory tests, and especially, delayed primacy, are associated with AD pathology even in individuals who are cognitively unimpaired. The earliest signs of cortical tau pathology are observed in medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions, yet it is unknown if serial position markers are also associated with early tau load in these regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This program evaluation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a community memory screening initiative across 25 Aging and Disability Resource Centers, spanning 39 counties and 5 tribal communities in the state of Wisconsin.
Methods: We evaluated the screened individuals' characteristics and reasons for screening, the screen results and topics addressed during screening, the rate of sending positive screens to primary care providers, and the incidence of subsequent dementia diagnosis as well as health behavior changes.
Results: Program evaluation results showed 791 completed surveys from individuals, indicating the program's accessibility and potential to reach populations in both urban and rural counties across Wisconsin.
Surfactant-laden fluid interfaces of soft colloids, such as bubbles and droplets, are ubiquitously seen in various natural phenomena and industrial settings. In canonical systems where microparticles are driven in hydrodynamic flows, convection of the surfactant changes local surface tension. Subsequently, the interplay of Marangoni and hydrodynamic stresses leads to rich interfacial dynamics that directly impact the particle motions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is a leading cause of irreversible blindness. There are no prospective studies on the risk of developing blindness in both eyes in individuals with definite OAG.
Methods: A total of 354 patients with newly diagnosed OAG, who had participated in four studies conducted at the Eye Department in Tierp, Sweden, from 1979 to 2006, were included in the investigation.
Background: Klotho, encoded by the gene, is an anti-aging and neuroprotective protein. KL-VS heterozygosity (KL-VS) is hypothesized to be protective against the accumulation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathological hallmarks (amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau).
Objective: We examine whether being positive for Aβ (A+) or tau (T+), or A/T joint status [positive for Aβ (A + T-), tau (A-T+), both (A + T+) or neither (A-T-)] vary by KL-VS and whether serum klotho protein levels vary based on A+, T+, or A/T status in a cohort enriched for AD risk.
Introduction: Multi-etiology dementia necessitates in-vivo markers of copathologies including misfolded -synuclein (syn). We measured misfolded syn aggregates (syn-seeds) via qualitative seed amplifcation assays (synSAA) and examined relationships with markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Methods: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was obtained from 420 participants in two Wisconsin AD risk cohorts (35% male; 91% cognitively unimpaired; mean (SD) age, 65.
Background: Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the critical components of the global response to the growing dementia crisis. Analysis of serial position performance in story recall tests has yielded sensitive metrics for the prediction of AD at low cost. In this study, we examined whether serial position markers in two story recall tests (the logical memory test, LMT, and the Craft Story 21 test, CST) were sensitive to cross-sectional biomarker-based assessment of in vivo neuropathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: We examined whether the aging suppressor KLOTHO gene's functionally advantageous KL-VS variant (KL-VS heterozygosity [KL-VS]) confers resilience against deleterious effects of aging indexed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of neuroinflammation (interleukin-6 [IL-6], S100 calcium-binding protein B [S100B], triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells [sTREM2], chitinase-3-like protein 1 [YKL-40], glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP]), neurodegeneration (total α-synuclein [α-Syn], neurofilament light chain protein), and synaptic dysfunction (neurogranin [Ng]).
Methods: This Alzheimer disease risk-enriched cohort consisted of 454 cognitively unimpaired adults (M= 61.5 ± 7.
Introduction: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have reported a genetic association with Alzheimer's disease (AD) at the TNIP1/GPX3 locus, but the mechanism is unclear.
Methods: We used cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteomics data to test (n = 137) and replicate (n = 446) the association of glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) with CSF biomarkers (including amyloid and tau) and the GWAS-implicated variants (rs34294852 and rs871269).
Results: CSF GPX3 levels decreased with amyloid and tau positivity (analysis of variance P = 1.
Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, hypoxemia during OSA has been implicated in cognitive impairment. OSA during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is usually more severe than in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, but the relative effect of oxyhemoglobin desaturation during REM versus NREM sleep on memory is not completely characterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intellectual disability (ID), schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), bipolar disorder (BD), substance use disorder (SUD), and other mental disorders (OMDs) are associated with increased risks of criminality relative to sex-matched individuals without these conditions (NOIDMD). To resource psychiatric, addiction, and social services so as to provide effective treatments, further information is needed about the size of sub-groups convicted of crimes, recidivism, timing of offending, antecedents, and correlates. Stigma of persons with mental disorders could potentially be dramatically reduced if violence was prevented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The sensitivity of amyloid to pre-analytic factors complicates cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diagnostics for Alzheimer disease. We report reliability and validity evidence for automated immunoassays from frozen and fresh CSF samples in an ongoing, single-site research program.
Methods: CSF samples were obtained from 2 Wisconsin cohorts (1256 measurements; 727 participants).
Background: Tuberculosis is estimated to cause 1.5 million deaths annually and is most common during the reproductive years. Despite that fact, we found that tuberculosis screening, prevention or care recommendations for people around the time of pregnancy were absent from some national policy recommendations and varied in others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreakdown of the neurovascular unit is associated with blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakiness contributing to cognitive decline and disease pathology in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Vascular stability depends on angiopoietin-1 (ANGPT-1) signalling, antagonised by angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT-2) expressed upon endothelial injury. We examined the relationship between CSF ANGPT-2 and CSF markers of BBB leakiness and core AD biomarkers across three independent cohorts: (i) 31 AD patients and 33 healthy controls grouped according to their biomarker profile (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, hypoxemia during OSA has been implicated in cognitive impairment. OSA during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is usually more severe than in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, but the relative effect of oxyhemoglobin desaturation during REM versus NREM sleep on memory is not completely characterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The use of mental health apps (MHAs) is increasing rapidly. However, little is known about the use of MHAs by racial and ethnic minority groups.
Objective: In this review, we aimed to examine the acceptability and effectiveness of MHAs among racial and ethnic minority groups, describe the purposes of using MHAs, identify the barriers to MHA use in racial and ethnic minority groups, and identify the gaps in the literature.
Study Objectives: Given the established racial disparities in both sleep health and dementia risk for African American populations, we assess cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of self-report sleep duration (SRSD) and daytime sleepiness with plasma amyloid beta (Aβ) and cognition in an African American (AA) cohort.
Methods: In a cognitively unimpaired sample drawn from the African Americans Fighting Alzheimer's in Midlife (AA-FAiM) study, data on SRSD, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, demographics, and cognitive performance were analyzed. Aβ40, Aβ42, and the Aβ42/40 ratio were quantified from plasma samples.
Neuropsychological measures sensitive to decline in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease are needed. We previously demonstrated that higher amyloid-beta (Aβ) assessed by positron emission tomography in adults without cognitive impairment was associated with recall of fewer proper names in Logical Memory story recall. The current study investigated the association between proper names and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers (Aβ, phosphorylated tau [pTau], neurofilament light) in 223 participants from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alzheimer's disease involves accumulating amyloid (A) and tau (T) pathology, and progressive neurodegeneration (N), leading to the development of the AD clinical syndrome. While several markers of N have been proposed, efforts to define normal vs. abnormal neurodegeneration based on neuroimaging have been limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are highly prevalent in long-term care settings. We sought to enhance the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of primary care clinicians caring for patients with BPSD through academic detailing, an evidence-based approach for persuading health care professionals to make changes in their practice. We implemented academic detailing among physicians and nurse practitioners in 2 primary care settings, one an urban center serving a largely Black community and another a rural center serving a largely white community, within primary care-integrated dementia diagnostic clinics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: It is critical to develop more inclusive Alzheimer's disease (AD) research protocols to ensure that historically excluded groups are included in preclinical research and have access to timely diagnosis and treatment. If validated in racialized groups, plasma AD biomarkers and measures of subtle cognitive dysfunction could provide avenues to expand diversity in preclinical AD research. We sought to evaluate the utility of two easily obtained, low-burden disease markers, plasma amyloid beta (Aβ)42/40, and intra-individual cognitive variability (IICV), to predict concurrent and longitudinal cognitive performance in a sample of Black adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Aging Neurosci
August 2023
Introduction: Metabolomics technology facilitates studying associations between small molecules and disease processes. Correlating metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with Alzheimer's disease (AD) CSF biomarkers may elucidate additional changes that are associated with early AD pathology and enhance our knowledge of the disease.
Methods: The relative abundance of untargeted metabolites was assessed in 161 individuals from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.
Background: Wordlist and story recall tests are routinely employed in clinical practice for dementia diagnosis. In this study, our aim was to establish how well-standard clinical metrics compared to process scores derived from wordlist and story recall tests in predicting biomarker determined Alzheimer's disease, as defined by CSF ptau/Aβ42 ratio.
Methods: Data from 295 participants (mean age = 65 ± 9.