Publications by authors named "Christopher van Dyck"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) and synaptic density in early Alzheimer's disease (AD) using PET imaging techniques.
  • Findings reveal a strong positive correlation between mGluR5 levels and synaptic density in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex of Alzheimer’s patients, but less significant in cognitively normal individuals.
  • The research concludes that loss of mGluR5 in the medial temporal lobe is linked to synaptic loss, suggesting its potential role in AD pathology.
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Introduction: Hearing loss is identified as one of the largest modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia. Studies evaluating this relationship have yielded mixed results.

Methods: We investigated the longitudinal relationship between self-reported hearing loss and cognitive/functional performance in 695 cognitively normal (CN) and 941 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) enrolled in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

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Simplified methods of acquisition and quantification would facilitate the use of synaptic density imaging in multicenter and longitudinal studies of Alzheimer disease (AD). We validated a simplified tissue-to-reference ratio method using SUV ratios (SUVRs) for estimating synaptic density with [C]UCB-J PET. Participants included 31 older adults with AD and 16 with normal cognition.

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Objectives: Among participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) we estimated the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in apathy symptom severity on three scales.

Design: Retrospective anchor- and distribution-based analyses of change in apathy symptom scores.

Setting: Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial (ADMET) and ADMET 2 randomized controlled trials conducted at three and ten clinics specialized in dementia care in United States and Canada, respectively.

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Introduction: CT1812 is in clinical development for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) exploratory proteomics was employed to identify pharmacodynamic biomarkers of CT1812 in mild to moderate AD from two independent clinical trials.

Methods: Unbiased analysis of tandem-mass tag mass spectrometry (TMT-MS) quantitative proteomics, pathway analysis and correlation analyses with volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (vMRI) were performed for the SPARC cohort (NCT03493282).

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Introduction: While higher socioeconomic factors (SEF) and cognitive performance (CP) have been associated with reduced Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk, recent evidence highlighted that these factors may have opposite effects on family history of AD (FHAD).

Methods: Leveraging data from the UK Biobank (N=448,100) and the All of Us Research Program (N=240,319), we applied generalized linear regression models, polygenic risk scoring (PRS), and one-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to test the sex-specific SEF and CP associations with AD and FHAD.

Results: Observational and genetically informed analyses highlighted that higher SEF and CP were associated with reduced AD and sibling-FHAD, while these factors were associated with increased parent-FHAD.

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Objectives: To examine clinically important adverse events (AEs) associated with methylphenidate (MPH) treatment of apathy in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) versus placebo, including weight loss, vital signs, falls, and insomnia.

Methods: The Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial 2 (ADMET2) trial was a multicenter randomized, placebo-controlled trial of MPH to treat apathy in individuals with apathy and AD. Participants in ADMET2 had vital signs and weight measured at monthly visits through 6 months.

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Importance: The risk of mental disorders is consistently associated with variants in CACNA1C (L-type calcium channel Cav1.2) but it is not known why these channels are critical to cognition, and whether they affect the layer III pyramidal cells in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that are especially vulnerable in cognitive disorders.

Objective: To examine the molecular mechanisms expressed in layer III pyramidal cells in primate dorsolateral prefrontal cortices.

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Article Synopsis
  • Alzheimer disease (AD) is a significant global health issue, and Lecanemab, an FDA-approved treatment for early AD, targets toxic Aβ protofibrils to improve patient outcomes.* -
  • The Clarity AD study was an 18-month, double-blind trial that evaluated Lecanemab's safety and efficacy, involving nearly 2,000 participants with early AD.* -
  • Results indicated that Lecanemab was generally well-tolerated, with some adverse events like infusion reactions and amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, and a total of 24 deaths observed, with a few linked to the treatment.*
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Importance: Effects of antiamyloid agents, targeting either fibrillar or soluble monomeric amyloid peptides, on downstream biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma are largely unknown in dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease (DIAD).

Objective: To investigate longitudinal biomarker changes of synaptic dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration in individuals with DIAD who are receiving antiamyloid treatment.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From 2012 to 2019, the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trial Unit (DIAN-TU-001) study, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, investigated gantenerumab and solanezumab in DIAD.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates early Alzheimer's disease changes in the brains of people with Down syndrome and those with genetic variants linked to Alzheimer's, aiming to better understand disease development and improve prevention strategies.
  • Using cross-sectional data from two cohort studies, researchers analyzed tau protein spread and its relationship with amyloid accumulation in participants aged 25 and older.
  • Findings revealed significant differences in the pattern and timing of tau accumulation in the two groups, suggesting implications for early intervention and clinical trials targeting Alzheimer's pathology.
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Synaptic loss is a primary pathology in Alzheimer's disease and correlates best with cognitive impairment as found in studies. Previously, we observed reductions of synaptic density with [C]UCB-J PET (radiotracer for synaptic vesicle protein 2A) throughout the neocortex and medial temporal brain regions in early Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we applied independent component analysis to synaptic vesicle protein 2A-PET data to identify brain networks associated with cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease in a blinded data-driven manner.

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Hearing difficulty (HD) is a major health burden in older adults. While ageing-related changes in the peripheral auditory system play an important role, genetic variation associated with brain structure and function could also be involved in HD predisposition. We analysed a large-scale HD genome-wide association study (GWAS; ntotal = 501 825, 56% females) and GWAS data related to 3935 brain imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) assessed in up to 33 224 individuals (52% females) using multiple MRI modalities.

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Introduction: Tau phosphorylated at threonine-217 (pT217-tau) is a novel fluid-based biomarker that predicts onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms, but little is known about how pT217-tau arises in the brain, as soluble pT217-tau is dephosphorylated post mortem in humans.

Methods: We used multilabel immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy to examine the subcellular localization of early-stage pT217-tau in entorhinal and prefrontal cortices of aged macaques with naturally occurring tau pathology and assayed pT217-tau levels in plasma.

Results: pT217-tau was aggregated on microtubules within dendrites exhibiting early signs of degeneration, including autophagic vacuoles.

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease, but at present there is no cure, nor any disease-modifying treatments. Synaptic biomarkers from in vivo imaging have shown promise in imaging loss of synapses in PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we provide new clinical insights from a cross-sectional, high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET) study of 30 PD individuals and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) with the radiotracer [C]UCB-J, which binds to synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A), and is therefore, a biomarker of synaptic density in the living brain.

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Introduction: Increasing evidence suggests that amyloid reduction could serve as a plausible surrogate endpoint for clinical and cognitive efficacy. The double-blind phase 3 DIAN-TU-001 trial tested clinical and cognitive declines with increasing doses of solanezumab or gantenerumab.

Methods: We used latent class (LC) analysis on data from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trials Unit 001 trial to test amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) reduction as a potential surrogate biomarker.

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Background: Effective, disease-modifying therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain a large unmet need. Extensive evidence suggests that amyloid beta (Aβ) is central to AD pathophysiology, and Aβ oligomers are among the most toxic forms of Aβ. CT1812 is a novel brain penetrant sigma-2 receptor ligand that interferes with the binding of Aβ oligomers to neurons.

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Background: Memory CD8 T cells expand with age. We previously demonstrated an age-associated expansion of effector memory (EM) CD8 T cells expressing low levels of IL-7 receptor alpha (IL-7Rα) and the presence of its gene signature (i.e.

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Introduction: pT217-tau is a novel fluid-based biomarker that predicts onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms, but little is known about how pT217-tau arises in brain, as soluble pT217-tau is dephosphorylated postmortem in humans.

Methods: We utilized multi-label immunofluorescence and immunoelectron-microscopy to examine the subcellular localization of early-stage pT217-tau in entorhinal and prefrontal cortices of aged macaques with naturally-occurring tau pathology and assayed pT217-tau levels in plasma.

Results: pT217-tau was aggregated on microtubules within dendrites exhibiting early signs of degeneration, including autophagic vacuoles.

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Purpose: Aging is a major societal concern due to age-related functional losses. Synapses are crucial components of neural circuits, and synaptic density could be a sensitive biomarker to evaluate brain function. [C]UCB-J is a positron emission tomography (PET) ligand targeting synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A), which can be used to evaluate brain synaptic density in vivo.

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Article Synopsis
  • Current methods for treating sporadic Alzheimer's mainly target amyloid beta and tau but overlook the critical issue of calcium dysregulation, which is significant in the disease's earlier stages.
  • The study explores the effects of a GCPII inhibitor, 2-MPPA, on aged macaques to see if it can enhance calcium signaling and reduce tau hyperphosphorylation.
  • Results indicated that 2-MPPA treatment led to lower levels of tau pathology and correlated with cognitive improvements, suggesting that targeting GCPII may be a promising strategy for addressing Alzheimer's-related inflammation.*
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Alzheimer's disease cortical tau pathology initiates in the layer II cell clusters of entorhinal cortex, but it is not known why these specific neurons are so vulnerable. Aging macaques exhibit the same qualitative pattern of tau pathology as humans, including initial pathology in layer II entorhinal cortex clusters, and thus can inform etiological factors driving selective vulnerability. Macaque data have already shown that susceptible neurons in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex express a "signature of flexibility" near glutamate synapses on spines, where cAMP-PKA magnification of calcium signaling opens nearby potassium and hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels to dynamically alter synapse strength.

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