TY - JOUR
T1 - Alzheimer’s pathology is associated with altered cognition, brain volume, and plasma biomarker patterns in traumatic encephalopathy syndrome
AU - Asken, Breton M.
AU - Tanner, Jeremy A.
AU - Gaynor, Leslie S.
AU - VandeVrede, Lawren
AU - Mantyh, William G.
AU - Casaletto, Kaitlin B.
AU - Staffaroni, Adam M.
AU - Fonseca, Corrina
AU - Shankar, Ranjani
AU - Grant, Harli
AU - Smith, Karen
AU - Lago, Argentina Lario
AU - Xu, Haiyan
AU - La Joie, Renaud
AU - Cobigo, Yann
AU - Rosen, Howie
AU - Perry, David C.
AU - Rojas, Julio C.
AU - Miller, Bruce L.
AU - Gardner, Raquel C.
AU - Wang, Kevin K.W.
AU - Kramer, Joel H.
AU - Rabinovici, Gil D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Background: Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES) is a clinical phenotype sensitive but non-specific to underlying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) neuropathology. However, cognitive symptoms of TES overlap with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and features of AD pathology like beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques often co-occur with CTE, making clinical-to-pathological conclusions of TES diagnoses challenging. We investigated how Alzheimer’s neuropathological changes associated with cognition, brain volume, and plasma biomarkers in patients with repetitive head impacts (RHI)/TES, clinical AD, or typically aging controls. Methods: We studied 154 participants including 33 with RHI/TES (age 61.5 ± 11.5, 100% male, 11/33 Aβ[+]), 62 with AD and no known prior RHI (age 67.1 ± 10.2, 48% male, 62/62 Aβ[+]), and 59 healthy controls without RHI (HC; age 73.0 ± 6.2, 40% male, 0/59 Aβ[+]). Patients completed neuropsychological testing (memory, executive functioning, language, visuospatial) and structural MRI (voxel-based morphometry analysis), and provided plasma samples analyzed for GFAP, NfL, IL-6, IFN-γ, and YKL-40. For cognition and plasma biomarkers, patients with RHI/TES were stratified as Aβ[+] or Aβ[−] and compared to each other plus the AD and HC groups (ANCOVA adjusting for age and sex). Differences with at least a medium effect size (Cohen’s d > 0.50) were interpreted as potentially meaningful. Results: Cognitively, within the TES group, Aβ[+] RHI/TES performed worse than Aβ[-] RHI/TES on visuospatial (p =.04, d = 0.86) and memory testing (p =.07, d = 0.74). Comparing voxel-wise brain volume, both Aβ[+] and Aβ[−] RHI/TES had lower medial and anterior temporal lobe volume than HC and did not significantly differ from AD. Comparing plasma biomarkers, Aβ[+] RHI/TES had higher plasma GFAP than HC (p =.01, d = 0.88) and did not significantly differ from AD. Conversely, Aβ[−] RHI/TES had higher NfL than HC (p =.004, d = 0.93) and higher IL-6 than all other groups (p’s ≤.004, d’s > 1.0). Conclusions: Presence of Alzheimer’s pathology in patients with RHI/TES is associated with altered cognitive and biomarker profiles. Patients with RHI/TES and positive Aβ-PET have cognitive and plasma biomarker changes that are more like patients with AD than patients with Aβ[−] RHI/TES. Measuring well-validated Alzheimer’s biomarkers in patients with RHI/TES could improve interpretation of research findings and heighten precision in clinical management.
AB - Background: Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES) is a clinical phenotype sensitive but non-specific to underlying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) neuropathology. However, cognitive symptoms of TES overlap with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and features of AD pathology like beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques often co-occur with CTE, making clinical-to-pathological conclusions of TES diagnoses challenging. We investigated how Alzheimer’s neuropathological changes associated with cognition, brain volume, and plasma biomarkers in patients with repetitive head impacts (RHI)/TES, clinical AD, or typically aging controls. Methods: We studied 154 participants including 33 with RHI/TES (age 61.5 ± 11.5, 100% male, 11/33 Aβ[+]), 62 with AD and no known prior RHI (age 67.1 ± 10.2, 48% male, 62/62 Aβ[+]), and 59 healthy controls without RHI (HC; age 73.0 ± 6.2, 40% male, 0/59 Aβ[+]). Patients completed neuropsychological testing (memory, executive functioning, language, visuospatial) and structural MRI (voxel-based morphometry analysis), and provided plasma samples analyzed for GFAP, NfL, IL-6, IFN-γ, and YKL-40. For cognition and plasma biomarkers, patients with RHI/TES were stratified as Aβ[+] or Aβ[−] and compared to each other plus the AD and HC groups (ANCOVA adjusting for age and sex). Differences with at least a medium effect size (Cohen’s d > 0.50) were interpreted as potentially meaningful. Results: Cognitively, within the TES group, Aβ[+] RHI/TES performed worse than Aβ[-] RHI/TES on visuospatial (p =.04, d = 0.86) and memory testing (p =.07, d = 0.74). Comparing voxel-wise brain volume, both Aβ[+] and Aβ[−] RHI/TES had lower medial and anterior temporal lobe volume than HC and did not significantly differ from AD. Comparing plasma biomarkers, Aβ[+] RHI/TES had higher plasma GFAP than HC (p =.01, d = 0.88) and did not significantly differ from AD. Conversely, Aβ[−] RHI/TES had higher NfL than HC (p =.004, d = 0.93) and higher IL-6 than all other groups (p’s ≤.004, d’s > 1.0). Conclusions: Presence of Alzheimer’s pathology in patients with RHI/TES is associated with altered cognitive and biomarker profiles. Patients with RHI/TES and positive Aβ-PET have cognitive and plasma biomarker changes that are more like patients with AD than patients with Aβ[−] RHI/TES. Measuring well-validated Alzheimer’s biomarkers in patients with RHI/TES could improve interpretation of research findings and heighten precision in clinical management.
KW - Amyloid
KW - Biomarker
KW - Brain injury
KW - Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
KW - GFAP
KW - NfL
KW - PET
KW - Plasma
KW - Repetitive head impacts
KW - Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome
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U2 - 10.1186/s13195-023-01275-w
DO - 10.1186/s13195-023-01275-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 37480088
AN - SCOPUS:85165499294
SN - 1758-9193
VL - 15
JO - Alzheimer's Research and Therapy
JF - Alzheimer's Research and Therapy
IS - 1
M1 - 126
ER -