New imaging scan reveals a culprit in cognitive decline of Alzheimer's


Date:
February 17, 2022
Source:
Yale University
Summary:
Advanced imaging technology has helped scientists confirm that
the destruction of brain synapses underlies the cognitive deficits
experienced by patients with Alzheimer's disease. For many years,
scientists have assumed that the loss of connections between brain
cells caused Alzheimer's-related symptoms, including memory loss,
but actual evidence of the role of synaptic loss had been limited
to a small number of brain biopsies and post-mortem brain exams
conducted on patients with moderate or advanced disease. However,
the emergence of a positron emission tomography (PET) scanning
technology has allowed researchers to observe the loss of synapses
in living patients with even mild symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Advanced imaging technology developed by Yale researchers has helped them confirm that the destruction of brain synapses underlies the cognitive
deficits experienced by patients with Alzheimer's disease, according
to a study published Feb. 17 in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia:
The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.


==========================================================================
For many years, scientists have assumed that the loss of connections
between brain cells caused Alzheimer's-related symptoms, including memory
loss, but actual evidence of the role of synaptic loss had been limited
to a small number of brain biopsies and post-mortem brain exams conducted
on patients with moderate or advanced disease. However, the emergence of
a positron emission tomography (PET) scanning technology, developed at
Yale, has allowed researchers to observe the loss of synapses in living patients with even mild symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

The new glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) PET imaging scan allowed scientists to
measure metabolic activity at the brain synapses of 45 people diagnosed
with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The researchers then measured
each person's cognitive performance in five key areas: verbal memory,
language skills, executive function, processing speed, and visual-spatial ability.

They found that the loss of synapses or connections between brain cells
was strongly associated with poor performance on cognitive tests. They
also found that synaptic loss was a stronger indicator of poor cognitive performance than the loss of overall volume of neurons in the brain.

Yale researchers can now track the loss of synapses in patients over
time, providing better understanding of development of cognitive decline
in individuals, said Christopher van Dyck, a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, director of the
Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and senior author of the paper.

"The findings help us understand the neurobiology of the disease and can
be an important new biomarker to test the efficacy of new Alzheimer's
drugs," said Adam Mecca, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead
author of the paper.

special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Yale_University. Original written
by Bill Hathaway. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Adam P. Mecca, Ryan S. O'Dell, Emily S. Sharp, Emmie R. Banks,
Hugh H.

Bartlett, Wenzhen Zhao, Sylwia Lipior, Nina G. Diepenbrock,
Ming‐Kai Chen, Mika Naganawa, Takuya Toyonaga, Nabeel
B. Nabulsi, Brent C. Vander Wyk, Amy F. T. Arnsten, Yiyun Huang,
Richard E. Carson, Christopher H. Dyck. Synaptic density and
cognitive performance in Alzheimer's disease: A PET imaging study
with [ 11 C]UCB‐J.

Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2022; DOI: 10.1002/alz.12582 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220217090713.htm

--- up 10 weeks, 5 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)