Value of cerebrospinal fluid α-synuclein species as biomarker in Parkinson's diagnosis and prognosis.

Since diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is mostly based on clinical criteria, it is almost impossible to formulate an early diagnosis, as well as a timely differential diagnosis versus other parkinsonisms. A great effort in searching reliable biomarkers both for early diagnosis and prognosis in PD is currently ongoing. Cerebrospinal fluid has been widely investigated as potential source for such biomarkers, with particular emphasis on α-synuclein (α-syn) species. We reviewed all the clinical studies carried out so far on cerebrospinal fluid quantification of α-syn species in PD. Current evidence supports the value of total and oligomeric α-syn in PD diagnosis and in the differential diagnosis of PD and other parkinsonisms. Conversely, the role of α-syn species in PD prognosis remains unsatisfactory

Associations of CSF PDGFRβ With Aging, Blood-Brain Barrier Damage, Neuroinflammation, and Alzheimer Disease Pathologic Changes

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Injured pericytes in the neurovascular unit release platelet-derived growth factor β (PDGFRβ) into the CSF. However, it is not clear how pericyte injury contributes to Alzheimer disease (AD)-related changes and blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage. We aimed to test whether CSF PDGFRβ was associated with different AD-associated and age-associated pathologic changes leading to dementia. METHODS: PDGFRβ was measured in the CSF of 771 participants with cognitively unimpaired (CU, n = 408), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 175), and dementia (n = 188) from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 cohort. We then checked association with β-amyloid (Aβ)-PET and tau-PET standardized uptake value ratio, APOE ε4 genotype and MRI measurements of cortical thickness, white matter lesions (WMLs), and cerebral blood flow. We also analyzed the role of CSF PDGFRβ in the relationship between aging, BBB dysfunction (measured by CSF/plasma albumin ratio, QAlb), and neuroinflammation (i.e., CSF levels of YKL-40 and glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP], preferentially expressed in reactive astrocytes). RESULTS: The cohort had a mean age of 67 years (CU = 62.8, MCI = 69.9, dementia = 70.4), and 50.1% were male (CU = 46.6%, MCI = 53.7%, dementia = 54.3%). Higher CSF PDGFRβ concentrations were related to higher age (b = 19.1, β = 0.5, 95% CI 16-22.2, p 0.05). DISCUSSION: In summary, pericyte damage, reflected by CSF PDGFRβ, may be involved in age-related BBB disruption together with neuroinflammation, but is not related to Alzheimer-related pathologic changes

Tau fragments: role as biomarkers and in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies

Abstract Tau protein is physiologically expressed in neurons, where it is involved in microtubule assembly and stability. Tau functions are rigorously regulated by a series of modifications, e.g. phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. When these mechanisms are dysregulated or other modifications occur, this leads to a group of diseases defined as “tauopathies”, characterized by build-up of tau protein aggregates in neurons and glial cells (neurofibrillary tangles, astrocytic plaques, tufted astrocytes). Tauopathies include, among others, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and diseases characterized by frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Among the many post-translational modifications that tau can undergo, proteolytic processing is gaining increasing attention, as many studies have shown that cleavage of tau in brain is related to disease. It has also been consistently observed that tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) consists of a series of fragments, with predominance of N-terminal and mid-region fragments compared to C-terminal ones. The aim of this thesis was to identify and quantify specific tau fragments in CSF with novel targeted immunoassays, and assess their potential as biomarkers for different tauopathies. We identified two major pools of tau consisting of species cleaved at either amino acid (aa) 123 or 224, reflecting different mechanisms of tau processing in AD. While cleavage generating tau N-123 is part of the physiological tau turnover, the generation of tau N-224 was shown to have clinical relevance, being related to AD; N-224 tau showed significantly higher concentrations in AD CSF compared to control and was related to worsening cognitive performance over time. Also, in the primary tauopathies PSP and CBD, N-224 tau did not correlate to total tau (t-tau) content, showing promise as a candidate biomarker for tauopathies other than AD. Based on previous reports of tau cleavage by asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) at aa 368, we also developed a new immunoassay targeting tau fragments cleaved C-terminally of aa 368 (tau 368). Our results demonstrate that, although tau 368 is measurable in CSF and overall increased in AD, only a small portion of the total content of CSF tau ends at 368. Instead, most of tau 368 is retained in tangles, as shown by the decrease in the tau 368/t-tau ratio over the course of disease and immunohistochemical staining of tangles. Of potential clinical relevance, we also showed a strong negative association of the CSF tau 368/t-tau ratio and uptake of the tau PET tracer [18F]GTP1, supporting the hypothesis that the ratio reflects underlying tau pathology and entrapment of tau 368 in tangles. When applying the newly-developed immunoassays to CSF from a FTD cohort, we observed that none of the measures showed a significant difference between the likely FTLD-TDP-43 and likely FTLD-tau pathology groups. However, when normalised for t-tau, N-224 showed a significant difference between FTLD-tau and FTLD associated to TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (FTLD-TDP-43), suggesting that, although the novel measures do not have a superior diagnostic accuracy to the classic tau biomarkers, there are different patterns in fragment concentrations between the pathological groups, and different profiles for each tauopathy. Finally, since the N-224 fragment showed potential clinical relevance in the differential diagnosis of tauopathies, we aimed to identify the enzyme responsible for cleavage at aa 224. By using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) peptide, containing a tau sequence which included aa 224, and high resolution mass spectrometry, we identified the enzyme responsible for cleavage as calpain-2. We confirmed the results in a gene knock-down SH-SY5Y cell model, where we measured a significant reduction in tau N-224 in the cell media after knock-down of the calpain-2 gene. These findings suggest that the calpain-2 pathway should be investigated as a possible target in the treatment of tauopathies

A Retrospective Study on Clinical Assessment of Cognitive Impairment in a Swedish Cohort : Is There Inequality Between Natives and Foreign-Born?

BACKGROUND: People with a migration background are underrepresented in dementia research and disfavored in assessment and treatment, and many foreign-born individuals with dementia remain undiagnosed.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine whether there is inequality in the clinical assessment of dementia between native and foreign-born individuals in Sweden.METHODS: Information was gathered retrospectively from a cohort of 91 native and 36 foreign-born patients attending four memory clinics in Skåne, Sweden. Data included information on cognitive test results, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, scores at structural imaging scales of global cortical atrophy (GCA), medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) and the Fazekas scale, laboratory measures of thyroid-stimulating hormone, calcium, albumin, homocysteine, hemoglobin, cobalamine (vitamin B12), and folate (vitamin B9), contact with health care, and treatment.RESULTS: Foreign-born patients had lower educational level and scored lower on Mini-Mental State Examination and Clock Drawing Test (p < 0.001-0.011). Relatives initiated contact with health care to a higher extent in the foreign-born group (p = 0.031). Foreign-born patients had less white matter lesions (p = 0.018). Additionally, Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers were significantly less used in foreign-born patients to support an AD diagnosis (p = 0.001). No significant differences were found for scores on GCA and MTA, laboratory measures, or initiated treatment.CONCLUSION: Although native and foreign-born patients were predominantly homogenous regarding examined variables, differences in the diagnostic process and underlying biological correlates of dementia exist and need to be further investigated in a larger sample

Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein detects Alzheimer pathology and predicts future conversion to Alzheimer dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment

Introduction: Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is a marker of astroglial activation and astrocytosis. We assessed the ability of plasma GFAP to detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology in the form of AD-related amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology and conversion to AD dementia in a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cohort. Method: One hundred sixty MCI patients were followed for 4.7 years (average). AD pathology was defined using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Aβ42/40 and Aβ42/total tau (T-tau). Plasma GFAP was measured at baseline and follow-up using Simoa technology. Results: Baseline plasma GFAP could detect abnormal CSF Aβ42/40 and CSF Aβ42/T-tau with an AUC of 0.79 (95% CI 0.72–0.86) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.72–0.86), respectively. When also including APOE ε4 status as a predictor, the accuracy of the model to detect abnormal CSF Aβ42/40 status improved (AUC = 0.86, p = 0.02). Plasma GFAP predicted subsequent conversion to AD dementia with an AUC of 0.84 (95% CI 0.77–0.91), which was not significantly improved when adding APOE ε4 or age as predictors to the model. Longitudinal GFAP slopes for Aβ-positive and MCI who progressed to dementia (AD or other) were significantly steeper than those for Aβ-negative (p = 0.007) and stable MCI (p < 0.0001), respectively. Conclusion: Plasma GFAP can detect AD pathology in patients with MCI and predict conversion to AD dementia

Cerebrospinal fluid N-224 tau helps discriminate Alzheimer’s disease from subjective cognitive decline and other dementias

Background: Elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of total tau (T-tau) and phosphorylated tau at Thr181 (P-tau181) protein are typical of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the T-tau assay measures only the mid-region of the protein, while tau in CSF is instead composed of a series of fragments. One fragment species in particular, N-224, shows increased levels in AD compared to controls. In this multicentre study, we performed a clinical validation of the N-224 assay in cohorts including patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD, non-AD dementias and controls. Methods: Cohorts consisted of 30 SCD and 30 probable AD from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort (cohort 1) and 539 controls, 195 SCD, 232 MCI, 137 AD and 253 non-AD from the Swedish BioFINDER study (cohort 2). All samples had AD core biomarkers (Aβ42, T-tau, P-tau181) measurements. N-224 was measured with an in-house ultrasensitive Simoa assay. Results: N-224 levels were significantly higher in AD compared to SCD (cohort 1: p = 0.003) and in AD compared to all other diagnostic groups in cohort 2 (control, SCD, MCI and non-AD, p < 0.0001). Within the non-AD group, N-224 showed significantly lower concentrations compared to AD in Parkinson’s disease (PD, p < 0.0001), Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD, p = 0.004), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP, < 0.0001), multiple system atrophy (MSA, p = 0.002) and parkinsonisms not otherwise specified (NOS, p = 0.007). In cohort 1, higher concentrations of N-224 were associated to lower Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores (R 2 = 0.318, β = 0.564, p ≤ 0.0001) and could accurately identify a pathological (< 24) MMSE score (p < 0.0001, AUC = 0.824). Conclusions: N-224 tau can distinguish AD subjects from SCD and can discriminate subgroups of non-AD dementias from AD. Therefore, N-224 may be a useful addition to the tau biomarker toolbox for the study of tau species in CSF and for better understanding disease pathogenesis

Comparing the Clinical Utility and Diagnostic Performance of Cerebrospinal Fluid P-Tau181, P-Tau217 and P-Tau231 Assays

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Phosphorylated tau (P-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is considered an important biomarker in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has been incorporated in recent diagnostic criteria. Several variants exist, including P-tau at threonines 181 (P-tau181), 217 (P-tau217) and 231 (P-tau231). However, no studies have compared their diagnostic performance or association to amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau positron emission tomography (PET). Understanding which P-tau variant to use remains an important yet answered question. We aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of P-tau181, P-tau217 and P-tau231 in CSF for AD and their association with Aβ and Tau-PET.METHODS: 629 subjects from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study were included (cognitively unimpaired, n=334; Aβ-positive mild cognitive impairment, n=84; AD dementia, n=119; and non-AD disorders, n=92). In addition to P-tau181 and P-tau217 measured using assays with the same detector antibodies from Eli Lilly (P-tau181Lilly, P-tau217Lilly) and P-tau231, we also included P-tau181 measurements from two commonly used assays (Innotest and Elecsys).RESULTS: Though all P-tau variants increased across the AD continuum, P-tau217Lilly showed the greatest dynamic range (13-fold-increase vs 1.9-5.4-fold-increase for other P-tau variants for AD dementia vs non-AD). P-tau217Lilly showed stronger correlations with Aβ- and Tau-PET (P<0.0001). P-tau217Lilly exhibited higher accuracy than other P-tau variants for separating AD dementia from non-AD (AUC, 0.991vs 0.906-0.982, P<0.0001) and for identifying Aβ- (AUC, 0.951 vs 0.816-0.924, P<0.0001) and Tau-PET positivity (AUC, 0.957 vs 0.836-0.938, P<0.0001). Finally, P-tau181Lilly generally performed better than the other P-tau181 assays, (e.g., AD dementia vs non-AD, AUC, 0.976 vs 0.923, P<0.0001).DISCUSSION: CSF P-tau217Lilly seem to be more useful than other included P-tau assays in the work-up of AD. Varied results across P-tau181 assays also highlights the importance of anti-tau antibodies for biomarker performance.CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides class II evidence that phosphorylated tau at threonine 217 provides higher diagnostic accuracy for diagnosis of AD dementia than P-tau at threonine 181 or 231

Associations of CSF PDGFRβ With Aging, Blood-Brain Barrier Damage, Neuroinflammation, and Alzheimer Disease Pathologic Changes

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Injured pericytes in the neurovascular unit release platelet-derived growth factor β (PDGFRβ) into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). However, it is not clear how pericyte injury contributes to Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related changes and blood brain barrier (BBB) damage. We aimed to test if CSF PDGFRβ was associated with different AD- and age-associated pathological changes leading to dementia.METHODS: PDGFRβ was measured in the CSF of 771 cognitively unimpaired (CU, n=408), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=175) and dementia subjects (n=188) from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 cohort. We then checked association Aβ-PET and tau-PET SUVR, APOE ε4 genotype and MRI measurements of cortical thickness, white matter lesions (WML) and cerebral blood flow (CBF). We also analysed the role of CSF PDGFRβ in the relationship between aging, BBB dysfunction (measured by CSF/plasma albumin ratio, QAlb) and neuroinflammation (i.e., CSF levels of YKL-40 and glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP], preferentially expressed in reactive astrocytes). RESULTS: The cohort had a mean age of 67 years (CU=62.8, MCI=69.9, dementia=70.4) and 50.1% were male (CU=46.6%, MCI=53.7%, dementia=54.3%). Higher CSF PDGFRβ concentrations were related to higher age (b=19.1, β=0.5, 95% CI=16-22.2, p0.05).DISCUSSION: In summary, pericyte damage, reflected by CSF PDGFRβ, may be involved in age-related BBB disruption together with neuroinflammation, but is not related to Alzheimer-related pathological changes

Additional file 2: of No diurnal variation of classical and candidate biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in CSF

Scatterplot and Spearman correlation coefficients with p-values for amyloid metabolism biomarkers measured with the three different assays. (JPG 1903 kb

Value of cerebrospinal fluid α-synuclein species as biomarker in Parkinson's diagnosis and prognosis

Since diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is mostly based on clinical criteria, it is almost impossible to formulate an early diagnosis, as well as a timely differential diagnosis versus other parkinsonisms. A great effort in searching reliable biomarkers both for early diagnosis and prognosis in PD is currently ongoing. Cerebrospinal fluid has been widely investigated as potential source for such biomarkers, with particular emphasis on α-synuclein (α-syn) species. We reviewed all the clinical studies carried out so far on cerebrospinal fluid quantification of α-syn species in PD. Current evidence supports the value of total and oligomeric α-syn in PD diagnosis and in the differential diagnosis of PD and other parkinsonisms. Conversely, the role of α-syn species in PD prognosis remains unsatisfactory