Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed neuronal specific microstructural alterations in Alzheimer’s disease
(2024) In Brain Communications 6(1).- Abstract
In Alzheimer’s disease, reconfiguration and deterioration of tissue microstructure occur before substantial degeneration become evident. We explored the diffusion properties of both water, a ubiquitous marker measured by diffusion MRI, and N-acetyl-aspartate, a neuronal metabolite probed by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy, for investigating cortical microstructural changes downstream of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. To this aim, 50 participants from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study were scanned on both 7 and 3 T MRI systems. We found that in cognitively impaired participants with evidence of both abnormal amyloid-beta (CSF amyloid-beta42/40) and tau accumulation (tau-PET), the N-acetyl-aspartate diffusion rate was... (More)
In Alzheimer’s disease, reconfiguration and deterioration of tissue microstructure occur before substantial degeneration become evident. We explored the diffusion properties of both water, a ubiquitous marker measured by diffusion MRI, and N-acetyl-aspartate, a neuronal metabolite probed by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy, for investigating cortical microstructural changes downstream of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. To this aim, 50 participants from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study were scanned on both 7 and 3 T MRI systems. We found that in cognitively impaired participants with evidence of both abnormal amyloid-beta (CSF amyloid-beta42/40) and tau accumulation (tau-PET), the N-acetyl-aspartate diffusion rate was significantly lower than in cognitively unimpaired participants (P < 0.05). This supports the hypothesis that intraneuronal tau accumulation hinders diffusion in the neuronal cytosol. Conversely, water diffusivity was higher in cognitively impaired participants (P < 0.001) and was positively associated with the concentration of myo-inositol, a preferentially astrocytic metabolite (P < 0.001), suggesting that water diffusion is sensitive to alterations in the extracellular space and in glia. In conclusion, measuring the diffusion properties of both water and N-acetyl-aspartate provides rich information on the cortical microstructure in Alzheimer’s disease, and can be used to develop new sensitive and specific markers to microstructural changes occurring during the disease course.
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- author
- Spotorno, Nicola LU ; Najac, Chloé ; Strandberg, Olof LU ; Stomrud, Erik LU ; van Westen, Danielle LU ; Nilsson, Markus LU ; Ronen, Itamar and Hansson, Oskar LU
- organization
-
- Clinical Memory Research (research group)
- MultiPark: Multidisciplinary research focused on Parkinson´s disease
- LU Profile Area: Proactive Ageing
- Medical Radiation Physics, Lund
- MR Physics (research group)
- Diagnostic Radiology, (Lund)
- Neuroradiology (research group)
- LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
- Multidimensional microstructure imaging (research group)
- eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Alzheimer’s disease, astrocytes, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy, N-acetyl-aspartate, tau
- in
- Brain Communications
- volume
- 6
- issue
- 1
- article number
- fcae026
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:38370447
- scopus:85185257955
- ISSN
- 2632-1297
- DOI
- 10.1093/braincomms/fcae026
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5ae50d68-a8d5-42e3-8b17-eacf74c8285b
- date added to LUP
- 2024-03-19 15:40:54
- date last changed
- 2024-04-16 14:18:12
@article{5ae50d68-a8d5-42e3-8b17-eacf74c8285b, abstract = {{<p>In Alzheimer’s disease, reconfiguration and deterioration of tissue microstructure occur before substantial degeneration become evident. We explored the diffusion properties of both water, a ubiquitous marker measured by diffusion MRI, and N-acetyl-aspartate, a neuronal metabolite probed by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy, for investigating cortical microstructural changes downstream of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. To this aim, 50 participants from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study were scanned on both 7 and 3 T MRI systems. We found that in cognitively impaired participants with evidence of both abnormal amyloid-beta (CSF amyloid-beta42/40) and tau accumulation (tau-PET), the N-acetyl-aspartate diffusion rate was significantly lower than in cognitively unimpaired participants (P < 0.05). This supports the hypothesis that intraneuronal tau accumulation hinders diffusion in the neuronal cytosol. Conversely, water diffusivity was higher in cognitively impaired participants (P < 0.001) and was positively associated with the concentration of myo-inositol, a preferentially astrocytic metabolite (P < 0.001), suggesting that water diffusion is sensitive to alterations in the extracellular space and in glia. In conclusion, measuring the diffusion properties of both water and N-acetyl-aspartate provides rich information on the cortical microstructure in Alzheimer’s disease, and can be used to develop new sensitive and specific markers to microstructural changes occurring during the disease course.</p>}}, author = {{Spotorno, Nicola and Najac, Chloé and Strandberg, Olof and Stomrud, Erik and van Westen, Danielle and Nilsson, Markus and Ronen, Itamar and Hansson, Oskar}}, issn = {{2632-1297}}, keywords = {{Alzheimer’s disease; astrocytes; diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy; N-acetyl-aspartate; tau}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, publisher = {{Oxford University Press}}, series = {{Brain Communications}}, title = {{Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed neuronal specific microstructural alterations in Alzheimer’s disease}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae026}}, doi = {{10.1093/braincomms/fcae026}}, volume = {{6}}, year = {{2024}}, }