Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed neuronal specific microstructural alterations in Alzheimer’s disease

Spotorno, Nicola LU ; Najac, Chloé ; Strandberg, Olof LU ; Stomrud, Erik LU orcid ; van Westen, Danielle LU orcid ; Nilsson, Markus LU ; Ronen, Itamar and Hansson, Oskar LU orcid (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.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
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 &lt; 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 &lt; 0.001) and was positively associated with the concentration of myo-inositol, a preferentially astrocytic metabolite (P &lt; 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}},
}