Background: Semantic and Phonological fluency (SF and PF) are routinely evaluated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). There are disagreements in the literature regarding which fluency task is more affected while developing AD. Most studies focus on SF assessment, given its connection with the temporoparietal amnesic system. PF is less reported, it is related to working memory, which is also impaired in probable and diagnosed AD. Differentiating between performance on these tasks might be informative in early AD diagnosis, providing an accurate linguistic profile.
Objective: Compare SF and PF performance in healthy volunteers, volunteers with probable AD, and patients with AD diagnosis, considering the heterogeneity of age, gender, and educational level variables.
Methods: A total of 8 studies were included for meta-analysis, reaching a sample size of 1,270 individuals (568 patients diagnosed with AD, 340 with probable AD diagnosis, and 362 healthy volunteers).
Results: The three groups consistently performed better on SF than PF. When progressing to a diagnosis of AD, we observed a significant difference in SF and PF performance across our 3 groups of interest (p = 0.04). The age variable explained a proportion of this difference in task performance across the groups, and as age increases, both tasks equally worsen.
Conclusion: The performance of SF and PF might play a differential role in early AD diagnosis. These tasks rely on partially different neural bases of language processing. They are thus worth exploring independently in diagnosing normal aging and its transition to pathological stages, including probable and diagnosed AD.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-221272 | DOI Listing |
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
GSK R&D, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
Background: Genetic variants in GRN, the gene encoding progranulin, are causal for or are associated with the risk of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. Modulating progranulin has been considered as a therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative diseases including Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Here, we integrated genetics with proteomic data to determine the causal human evidence for the therapeutic benefit of modulating progranulin in AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Background: Pharmacoepidemiologic studies assessing drug effectiveness for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) are increasingly popular given the critical need for effective therapies for ADRD. To meet the urgent need for robust dementia ascertainment from real-world data, we aimed to develop a novel algorithm for identifying incident and prevalent dementia in claims.
Method: We developed algorithm candidates by different timing/frequency of dementia diagnosis/treatment to identify dementia from inpatient/outpatient/prescription claims for 6,515 and 3,997 participants from Visits 5 (2011-2013; mean age 75.
Background: The autophagy lysosomal pathway (ALP) and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) are key proteostasis mechanisms in cells, which are dysfunctional in AD and linked to protein aggregation and neuronal death. Autophagy is over activated in Alzheimer's disease brain whereas UPS is severely impaired. Activating autophagy has received most attention, however recent evidence suggests that UPS can clear aggregate proteins and a potential therapeutic target for AD and protein misfolding diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Availability of amyloid modifying therapies will dramatically increase the need for disclosure of Alzheimer's disease (AD) related genetic and/or biomarker test results. The 21st Century Cares Act requires the immediate return of most medical test results, including AD biomarkers. A shortage of genetic counselors and dementia specialists already exists, thus driving the need for scalable methods to responsibly communicate test results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, Lexington, KY, USA.
Background: The presence of multiple comorbid pathologic features in late-onset dementia has been well documented across cohort studies that incorporate autopsy evaluation. It is likely that such mixed pathology potentially confounds the results of interventional trials that are designed to target a solitary pathophysiologic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).
Method: The UK ADRC autopsy database was screened for participants who had previously engaged in therapeutic interventional trials for Alzheimer's disease, vascular cognitive impairment, dementia, and/or ADRD prevention trials from 2005 to the present.
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