1,231 results match your criteria: "UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL[Affiliation]"

X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1 (CMT1X) is a demyelinating neuropathy resulting from loss-of-function mutations affecting the /connexin 32 (Cx32) gene. We previously showed functional and morphological improvement in -null mice following AAV9-mediated delivery of human Cx32 driven by the myelin protein zero (Mpz) promoter in Schwann cells. However, CMT1X mutants may interfere with virally delivered wild-type (WT) Cx32.

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GC hexanucleotide repeat expansions in a non-coding region of the C9orf72 gene are the most common cause of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). GC insertion length is variable, and patients can carry up to several thousand repeats. Dipeptide repeat proteins (DPRs) translated from GC transcripts are thought to be a main driver of toxicity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists studied over 176,000 people to see how certain genes might protect against Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  • They found that specific types of a gene called HLA could help reduce the risk of these diseases and lower harmful proteins in the brain.
  • This suggests that our immune system might help protect us from PD and AD, which could lead to new treatments in the future.
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Type 4C Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT4C) demyelinating neuropathy is caused by autosomal recessive SH3TC2 gene mutations. SH3TC2 is highly expressed in myelinating Schwann cells. CMT4C is a childhood-onset progressive disease without effective treatment.

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Neonates with critical congenital heart defects undergoing open-heart surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass circulation are at risk for white matter brain injury. This article reports on pre- and postoperative plasma concentrations of brain injury markers glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neurofilament light (NfL) and Tau, and their respective associations with white matter lesions detected on postoperatively performed brain MRI. Forty term newborns with isolated critical congenital heart defects were included in a prospective observational study.

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Unlabelled: Fluid biomarkers are currently measured in cerebrospinal fluid and blood for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and are promising targets for drug development and for patients' follow-up in clinical trials. These biomarkers have been grouped in an unbiased research framework, the amyloid (Aβ), tau, and neurodegeneration (AT[N]) biomarker system to aid patients' early diagnosis and stratification. Metrological approaches relying on mass spectrometry have been used for the development of reference materials and reference measurement procedures.

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Immunological control of viral infections in the brain exerts immediate protection and also long-term maintenance of brain integrity. Microglia are important for antiviral defense in the brain. Here, we report that herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) infection of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived microglia down-regulates expression of genes in the TREM2 pathway.

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α-Synuclein seed amplification assay as a diagnostic tool for parkinsonian disorders.

Parkinsonism Relat Disord

December 2023

Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden.

Introduction: Synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) can be challenging to diagnose due to the symptom overlap with, for example, atypical parkinsonisms like progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Seed amplification assays (SAA), developed for the detection of α-synuclein (αSyn) aggregates in CSF, have been successful when used as a biomarker evaluation for synucleinopathies. In this study, we investigated the potential of this assay to not only detect αSyn seeds in CSF, but also discriminate between movement disorders.

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Background: It is known that blood levels of neurofilament light (NF-L) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) are both associated with outcome of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Here, we sought to examine the association between admission levels of plasma NF-L and white matter (WM) integrity in post-acute stage DW-MRI in patients with mTBI.

Methods: Ninety-three patients with mTBI (GCS ≥ 13), blood sample for NF-L within 24 h of admission, and DW-MRI ≥ 90 days post-injury (median = 229) were included.

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Immune cell subpopulations and serum neurofilament light chain are associated with increased risk of disease worsening in multiple sclerosis.

J Neuroimmunol

September 2023

Department of Research, Innovation and Education, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.

Changes is lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood have been proposed as biomarkers for evaluation of disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) is a biomarker reflecting neuro-axonal injury in MS that could be used to monitor disease activity, response to drugs and to prognosticate disease course. Here we show a moderate correlation between sNfL and lymphocyte cell subpopulations, and our data furthermore suggest that sNfL and specific immune cell subpopulations together could predict future disease worsening in MS.

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Central nervous system biomarkers GFAp and NfL associate with post-acute cognitive impairment and fatigue following critical COVID-19.

Sci Rep

August 2023

Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala University, Entr. 70, Floor 2, 75185, Uppsala, Sweden.

A high proportion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience post-acute COVID-19, including neuropsychiatric symptoms. Objective signs of central nervous system (CNS) damage can be investigated using CNS biomarkers such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAp), neurofilament light chain (NfL) and total tau (t-tau). We have examined whether CNS biomarkers can predict fatigue and cognitive impairment 3-6 months after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU) in critically ill COVID-19 patients.

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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.

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Frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Nat Rev Dis Primers

August 2023

Department of Neurology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is one of the most common causes of early-onset dementia and presents with early social-emotional-behavioural and/or language changes that can be accompanied by a pyramidal or extrapyramidal motor disorder. About 20-25% of individuals with FTLD are estimated to carry a mutation associated with a specific FTLD pathology. The discovery of these mutations has led to important advances in potentially disease-modifying treatments that aim to slow progression or delay disease onset and has improved understanding of brain functioning.

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Methods to Discover and Validate Biofluid-Based Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Dementias.

Mol Cell Proteomics

October 2023

MIRIADE Consortium, Multiomics Interdisciplinary Research Integration to Address DEmentia diagnosis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK; UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, UK; Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China; Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • * Scientists are looking for special proteins in body fluids that can help diagnose conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, but they still need more tools for other types of dementia.
  • * The text reviews different technologies that can help find these special proteins, explaining what each one does, its pros and cons, and how they might be useful in the future.
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Matrix metalloproteinases are associated with brain atrophy in cognitively unimpaired individuals.

Neurobiol Aging

November 2023

Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Computational Radiology and Artificial Intelligence, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) have been linked to age-related neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their role in normal aging is poorly understood. We used linear mixed models to determine if baseline or rate of yearly change in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of MMP-2; MMP-3; MMP-10; TIMP-123 (composite of TIMP-1, TIMP-2, and TIMP-3); or TIMP-4 predicted changes in bilateral entorhinal cortex thickness, hippocampal volume, or lateral ventricle volume in cognitively unimpaired individuals. We also assessed effects on the CSF AD biomarkers amyloid-β and phosphorylated tau.

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Introduction: Phosphorylated tau (p-tau) biomarkers have been recently proposed to represent brain amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology. Here, we evaluated the plasma biomarkers' contribution beyond the information provided by demographics (age and sex) to identify Aβ and tau pathologies in individuals segregated as cognitively unimpaired (CU) and impaired (CI).

Methods: We assessed 138 CU and 87 CI with available plasma p-tau231, 217 , and 181, Aβ42/40, GFAP and Aβ- and tau-PET.

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Hypotension during transsphenoidal pituitary surgery associated with increase in plasma levels of brain injury markers.

Acta Anaesthesiol Scand

November 2023

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Background: Patients undergoing pituitary surgery may experience short- and long-term postoperative morbidity. Intraoperative factors such as hypotension might be a contributing factor. Our aim was to investigate the association between intraoperative hypotension and postoperative plasma levels of tau, neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as markers of perioperative brain injury.

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Advancing specificity in delirium: The delirium subtyping initiative.

Alzheimers Dement

January 2024

Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Block B, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Royal Victoria Hospital Site, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Background: Delirium, a common syndrome with heterogeneous etiologies and clinical presentations, is associated with poor long-term outcomes. Recording and analyzing all delirium equally could be hindering the field's understanding of pathophysiology and identification of targeted treatments. Current delirium subtyping methods reflect clinically evident features but likely do not account for underlying biology.

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Neuronal dysfunction and cognitive deterioration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are likely caused by multiple pathophysiological factors. However, evidence in humans remains scarce, necessitating improved non-invasive techniques and integrative mechanistic models. Here, we introduce personalized brain activity models incorporating functional MRI, amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau-PET from AD-related participants .

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Article Synopsis
  • Phosphorylated tau (pTau217) is a promising blood biomarker for Alzheimer's disease, but its availability for tests in research and clinical settings has been limited, highlighting the need for broader access.
  • The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a new plasma pTau217 test (ALZpath) to detect Alzheimer's pathology and to evaluate reference ranges for abnormal amyloid across three observational cohorts.
  • Results from 786 participants showed pTau217 had high accuracy (0.92-0.97) in identifying abnormal amyloid and tau pathology, outperforming other plasma biomarker combinations and matching the accuracy of established imaging methods.
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Association of Choroid Plexus Volume With Serum Biomarkers, Clinical Features, and Disease Severity in Patients With Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Spectrum.

Neurology

September 2023

From the Precision Neuroscience & Neuromodulation Program (M.A., S.R., G.S., E.S.), Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Unit (M.A., F.D.L., G.K.), Department of Behavioural and Clinical Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS; Memory Clinic (M.A.), Department of Systems Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome; Neurology Unit (E.P., S.G., A.B., A.P., B.B.), Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Italy; Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology (N.J.A.), Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg; Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine (N.J.A.), University of Gothenburg, Mӧlndal, Sweden; King's College London (N.J.A.), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health & Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation (N.J.A.), United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry (H.Z., K.B.), Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory (H.Z., K.B.), Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Neurodegenerative Disease (H.Z.), UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square; UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL (H.Z.), London, United Kingdom; Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (H.Z.), Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China; Neuroradiology Unit (R.G.), University of Brescia, Italy; Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (E.T.), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Department of Medicine (G.S.), Surgery and Neuroscience, Siena Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Laboratory, University of Siena, Siena, Italy; Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife (A.P.-L.); Department of Neurology (A.P.-L.), Harvard MedicalSchool, Boston, MA, USA; and Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation (G.K.), University of Ferrara, Italy.

Background And Objectives: Choroid plexus (ChP) is emerging as a key brain structure in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders. In this observational study, we investigated ChP volume in a large cohort of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) spectrum to explore a possible link between ChP volume and other disease-specific biomarkers.

Methods: Participants included patients meeting clinical criteria for a probable syndrome in the FTLD spectrum.

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Profiling of plasma biomarkers in the context of memory assessment in a tertiary memory clinic.

Transl Psychiatry

July 2023

Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Centre for Alzheimer Research, Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-14183, Stockholm, Sweden.

Plasma biomarkers have shown promising performance in research cohorts in discriminating between different stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Studies in clinical populations are necessary to provide insights on the clinical utility of plasma biomarkers before their implementation in real-world settings. Here we investigated plasma biomarkers (glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), tau phosphorylated at 181 and 231 (pTau181, pTau231), amyloid β (Aβ) 42/40 ratio, neurofilament light) in 126 patients (age = 65 ± 8) who were admitted to the Clinic for Cognitive Disorders, at Karolinska University Hospital.

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Background: Conventional neuropsychological norms likely include cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology (amyloid-β, tau, and neurodegeneration) since they are based on cohorts without AD biomarkers data. Due to this limitation, population-based norms would lack sensitivity for detecting subtle cognitive decline due to AD, the transitional stage between healthy cognition and mild cognitive impairment. We have recently published norms for memory tests in individuals with normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarker levels.

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Background: Genetic scores for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) have been associated with preclinical cognitive decline and biomarker variations. Compared with an overall polygenic risk score (PRS), a pathway-specific PRS (p-PRS) may be more appropriate in predicting a specific biomarker or cognitive component underlying LOAD pathology earlier in the lifespan.

Objective: In this study, we leveraged longitudinal data from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention and explored changing patterns in cognition and biomarkers at various age points along six biological pathways.

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