The Correlations between Postmortem Brain Pathologies and Cognitive Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Title:The Correlations between Postmortem Brain Pathologies and Cognitive Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Volume: 15 Issue: 5

Author(s): Wen-Ying Qiu, Qian Yang, Wanying Zhang, Naili Wang, Di Zhang, Yue Huang*Chao Ma*

Affiliation:

• School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, 2033,Australia

• Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005,China

Keywords: ECog score, cognitive function, ABC score, amyloid plaques, neuritic plaques, Alzheimer's Disease, clinicopathological correlation.

Abstract: Background: The pathological diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) updated by the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) in 2012 has been widely adopted, but the clinicopathological relevance remained obscure in Chinese population.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlations between the antemortem clinical cognitive performances and the postmortem neuropathological changes in the aging and AD brains collected in a human brain bank in China.

Method: A total of 52 human brains with antemortem cognitive status information [Everyday Cognition (ECog)] were collected through the willed donation program by CAMS/PUMC Human Brain Bank. Pathological changes were evaluated with the “ABC” score following the guidelines of NIA-AA. The clinicopathological relationship was analyzed with correlation analysis and general linear multivariate model.

Results: The general ABC score has a significant correlation with global ECog score (r=0.37, p=0.014) and most of ECog domains. The CERAD score of neuritic plaques (C score) has a significant correlation with global ECog score (r=0.40, p=0.007) and the majority of ECog domains, such as memory (r=0.50, p=0.001), language (r=0.45, p=0.002), visuospatial functions (r=0.31, p=0.040), planning (r=0.35, p=0.021) and organization (r=0.39, p=0.010). The Braak stage of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) (B score) has a moderate correlation with memory (r=0.32, p=0.035). The Thal phases of amyloid-β (Aβ) deposits (A score) present no significant correlation with any of ECog domains.

Conclusion: In this study, we verified the correlation of postmortem C and B scores, but not the A score with cognition performance in a collection of samples from the Chinese human brain bank.

Cite this article as:

Qiu Wen-Ying , Yang Qian , Zhang Wanying, Wang Naili , Zhang Di, Huang Yue *, Ma Chao*, The Correlations between Postmortem Brain Pathologies and Cognitive Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease, Current Alzheimer Research 2018; 15 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567205014666171106150915