PET imaging utility of a novel Aβ‐tracking PET radiotracer, [F]FC119S in aged vervet monkeys.

Background: Older vervet monkeys are an excellent model for studying age‐associated Aβ deposition; however, they have high proportions of low‐affinity Aβ sites compared to human brains. Commonly used Aβ PET radiotracers are most useful in detecting high affinity Aβ fibrils. Measuring real‐time levels of low affinity Aβ fibrils through PET provides critical information of early AD progression.

Plasma and neuroimaging biomarkers of small vessel disease and Alzheimer’s disease in a diverse cohort.

Background: Little is known about how plasma Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers relate to neuroimaging biomarkers of cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) in the context of neurodegeneration and AD pathology in late life.

Method: This cross‐sectional study included 251 Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Exam 6 participants with plasma AD biomarkers (Aβ42/Aβ40, GFAP, NfL, p‐tau181, p‐tau217, p‐tau231; Quanterix SIMOA), MRI (neurodegeneration and cSVD), PiB (amyloid) PET, and UDSv3‐based adjudicated cognitive status (69% cognitively normal, 27% MCI, 4% probable dementia) data at the Wake Forest site. Multivariable models examined relationships among cognitive status, plasma, and neuroimaging biomarkers (covariates: age, education, race, gender, smoking status, kidney function [eGFR], APOE‐ε4, BMI; significance at p<.

Characterizing dementia risk in individuals with mild cognitive impairment using manifold learning, blood biomarkers, cognitive and imaging data.

Background: Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) is a technique for dimension reduction and visualization of high‐dimensional (HD) data. Here, we apply UMAP to represent in two dimensions, data from members of the Wake Forest School of Medicine Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (WFUSM‐ADRC) clinical cohort.

Methods: We examined baseline data from 542 WFUSM‐ADRC participants with mean age 70.

Heart rate variability during routine cognitive testing: preliminary analyses of time and frequency domain metrics.

Background: Early autonomic function changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may represent a biomarker for early affective changes in prodromal disease. We report preliminary differences in metrics of heart rate variability (HRV) before and during routine cognitive testing.

Method: We enrolled 50 participants from the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center to wear continuous ECG devices during their visit to assess time and frequency domain based metrics of HRV over 5 minutes at rest and during cognitive testing.

White matter abnormalities in association with amyloid and tau deposition in a diverse cohort with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Background: Neuritic plaques with fibrillar beta‐amyloid (Aβ) peptides and tau‐protein neurofibrillary tangles, hallmark features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology, have been concomitantly associated with white matter (WM) integrity loss, while a unique effect of each pathology on WM integrity in a more demographically diverse population remains unknown.

Method: To examine the degree to which each pathology affects WM integrity in a more diverse non‐demented cohort, Aβ and tau PET, diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI), and cognition (memory and executive function composites) were examined from the U.S.