Biomarkers.

Background: A multi-center study in Los Angeles (USC), Kansas City (KUMC) and Dallas (UT-SWMC) quantified via predictive modeling the dynamics of cerebral perfusion regulation (CO2 vasoreactivity and cerebral autoregulation) in MCI/AD patients and cognitively normal controls under resting conditions. The goal was to develop model-based physio-markers for accurate diagnosis of MCI and pre-clinical AD, motivated by our previous findings of significant impairment of cerebral perfusion regulation in MCI and mild AD patients.

Method: Continuous spontaneous changes in arterial blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, cerebral blood flow velocity in middle cerebral arteries and cortical tissue oxygenation at lateral prefrontal cortex were recorded over two 6-8 min sessions, separated by session of slow-paced breathing (6 breaths/minute), in 53 MCI (28 APOE4 non-carriers and 25 APOE4 carriers), 33 mild AD patients (13 APOE4 non-carriers and 20 APOE4 carriers) and 74 age/sex-matched cognitively normal controls (50 APOE4 non-carriers and 24 APOE4 carriers).

Biomarkers.

Background: Control of breathing is known to be adversely affected by cognitive impairment, often associated with sleep apnea or disordered breathing during sleep in MCI/AD. The origin of this disorder is thought to be in the dysfunction of the respiratory control centers of the brainstem or in the impaired afferent signaling from cortical regions. Continuous breathing data were collected in a multi-center study in Los Angeles (USC), Kansas City (KUMC) and Dallas (UT-SWMC), and used to compute respiratory rate variability (RRV) to test the hypothesis that voluntary control of breathing is impaired in MCI and mild AD patients relative to cognitively normal controls, and whether this impairment is more severe in mild AD than MCI patients.

Stain-free LED scanning lifetime imaging system for diabetes modified tissue matrices.

In contrast to labor intensive and destructive histological techniques, intrinsic autofluorescence lifetimes of extra cellular matrix proteins can provide label-free imaging of tissue modifications in diseases, including the diabetic ulcers. However, decoupling the complex mixture of tissue fluorophores requires costly and complicated fluorescent lifetime instrumentation. Furthermore, a list of autofluorescent and fluorogenic proteins must be characterized to profile their changes during disease progression.