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Zetterberg, H.

Publications and source records attributed to Zetterberg, H..

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Differential endothelial cell remodeling in Down syndrome and APP duplication drives distinct blood brain barrier dysfunction

An extra copy of the amyloid precursor protein gene (APP) is present in Down syndrome (DS) and APP duplication (APPdup), increasing the risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). However, we reported greater vascular A{beta} deposition in APPdup than in DS with AD, suggesting that other triplicated chromosome 21 genes may mitigate CAA severity. We investigated endothelial cell (EC) function and blood brain barrier (BBB) integrity in DS and APPdup using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived ECs (iECs), assessing their morphology, junctional proteins, A{beta} peptide secretion, barrier function, and transcriptomic profiles. Both DS and APPdup iECs secreted more A{beta}40 A{beta}42 compared with their respective isogenic controls but exhibited distinct A{beta} peptide profiles. DS iECs showed increased junctional protein expression and reduced permeability, whereas APPdup iECs displayed increased permeability. Transcriptomic analysis revealed extensive dysregulation in DS iECs, with enrichment of junctional, adhesion, angiogenic, immune, and apoptosis pathways, and reduced cell-cycle, proliferative, and membrane-targeting signatures. APPdup iECs showed milder changes, including impaired protein targeting and reduced adhesion-related pathways. Despite comparable APP dosage, DS iECs maintained greater junctional integrity and lower permeability than APPdup iECs, potentially contributing to differential CAA vulnerability. However, impaired proliferation and altered angiogenesis may reduce BBB resilience during ageing.

neuroscience↗

CSF complement proteins are associated with early tau pathology and synaptic damage in an asymptomatic population at risk of Alzheimer's disease

Complement-mediated neuroinflammation has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role during the pre-symptomatic phase of the disease remains unclear. In the PREVENT-AD cohort of cognitively unimpaired individuals at increased familial risk of AD, we investigated whether CSF complement proteins relate to early AD pathology and synaptic dysfunction, then assessed our results' reproducibility across the clinical AD spectrum. Baseline CSF C1q, C3, C3b, and Factor H were measured in relation to CSF AD biomarkers, synaptic proteins, cognition, MRI volumetry, and amyloid and tau PET. Key findings were then examined in 708 participants from ADNI spanning cognitively normal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia stages of AD. In PREVENT-AD, C1q was positively associated with CSF P-tau181, T-tau, and multiple synaptic markers including ADAM23, GAP43, SNAP25, and SYT1. Factor H showed similarly strong positive associations with P-tau181, T-tau, ADAM22, ADAM23, GAP43, and SYT1. By contrast, C3 showed minimal associations, while C3b displayed weaker positive relationships with P-tau181, T-tau, ADAM22, and ADAM23. Complement proteins were not robustly associated with amyloid or tau PET, and only C1q related to lower global cognitive performance. In ADNI, C1q emerged as the most consistent analyte, showing positive associations with tau, neurofilament light, and synaptic markers across all diagnostic groups. C3 exhibited predominantly negative associations, whereas C3b and Factor H showed stage-dependent relationships, particularly with evident neurodegeneration and synaptic injury in symptomatic individuals. These findings identify complement dysregulation, especially involving C1q, as an early correlate of tau-linked synaptic pathology, and support a role for complement activation in the AD molecular cascade.

neuroscience↗

Peripheral T-cell co-signalling states mark vulnerability and resilience to cerebral Aβ pathology

Adaptive immune responses may influence vulnerability and resilience in Alzheimers disease (AD), but relevant T-cell states remain unclear. We profiled peripheral immune cells by mass cytometry in 200 participants across distinct age groups, early AD and exceptional old age without dementia, relating immune features to amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) PET, plasma biomarkers and longitudinal structural and cognitive outcomes. Inducible T-cell co-stimulator (ICOS) expression across CD4 and CD8 memory T-cells was associated with cerebral A{beta} pathology. In mild cognitive impairment (MCI), higher ICOS expression on CD8 memory T-cells strengthened the association between A{beta} load and hippocampal atrophy. A{beta}-derived peptides induced proliferative ICOS+CD25+ memory CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses predominantly in A{beta}-positive participants in an independent cohort. Conversely, higher programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) expression on CD8 effector-memory T-cells was associated with attenuated A{beta}-related episodic-memory decline in exceptionally old participants and was higher in stable MCI than in MCI-to-AD converters. These findings identify distinct co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory T-cell correlates of vulnerability and resilience.

immunology↗

The neuropathy-causing GARS1{triangleup}ETAQ mutation drives pathology in subsets of motor and sensory neurons in mice

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D (CMT2D) results from gain-of-function mutations in GARS1, which encodes glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS), the enzyme responsible for charging transfer RNA (tRNA) with glycine. There are several CMT2D mouse models, but Gars{Delta}ETAQ/+ is the only one that bears a patient-sourced mutation. Created using CRISPR/Cas9 to model a 12-nucleotide de novo GARS1 deletion identified in an unusually severe CMT2D patient, Gars{Delta}ETAQ/+ mice have previously been shown to display several neuromuscular phenotypes; motor axon loss, denervated neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and reduced muscle function. Here, we extend these analyses to provide a more comprehensive understanding of both motor and sensory nerve deficits across hind- and fore-limbs. At 3 months, Gars{Delta}ETAQ/+ mice possess sex-independent alterations in the levels of neuropathy biomarkers - including decreased NfL and increased periaxin - alongside reduced muscle endurance and strength, and impairments in the sensory modalities of mechanosensation, proprioception and nociception. Underpinning these dysfunctions, we identified site-specific defects comprising altered sensory neuron populations, muscle spindle loss, reduced motor neuron size, disrupted NMJ innervation and maturation, and reduced axonal transport of signalling endosomes in vivo. Together, these experiments show that Gars{Delta}ETAQ/+ mice display robust and selective peripheral nerve pathology that manifests in a general distal-to-proximal fashion, priming this CMT2D allele for testing treatments and evaluating mechanisms underlying peripheral nerve vulnerability. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/736541v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (70K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b48a41org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e0c22dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ec2f5forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@11a3311_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

neuroscience↗

Neurostructural and molecular evidence of advanced brain aging in rheumatoid arthritis

Chronic systemic inflammation has been implicated in age-related neurodegeneration, but whether rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with accelerated brain aging remains unclear. We combined structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), circulating neurodegeneration biomarkers, and peripheral monocyte transcriptomics to investigate brain aging in RA across two independent cohorts. A brain-age prediction model trained in healthy controls from the IXI imaging dataset was applied to RA patient cohorts from Gothenburg (n = 71) and Glasgow (n = 50). RA was associated with significantly elevated corrected brain-age gap relative to healthy controls (+6.5 years, 95% CI 4.2-8.8 years, p = 1.2 x 10-7), with substantially stronger effects in patients [≥]60 years. Older RA patients demonstrated a significant ventricular enlargement together with reduced frontal and parietal lobe volumes. Serum brain-derived tau and glial fibrillary acidic protein levels were elevated in RA. The increased brain-age gap was associated with altered myeloid transcriptional signatures. These findings demonstrate that RA is associated with age-related neurostructural alterations consistent with accelerated brain aging.

neuroscience↗

Longitudinal Alterations in Sleep EEG Biomarkers of Memory Consolidation in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

The precise coordination of slow oscillations (SO) and sleep spindles during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep supports memory consolidation and may serve as a sensitive marker of cognitive aging. However, longitudinal changes in their oscillatory dynamics in midlife and older age remain poorly understood. Using polysomnography with high-density EEG at two timepoints over [~]2.5 years, we examined changes in local NREM slow wave (SW), sleep spindle (occurring in the 11-16 Hz sigma range), and SO-sigma coupling strength in cognitively unimpaired middle-aged to older adults at risk for Alzheimers disease. Fronto-central SO-sigma power coupling strength significantly declined over time, independent of changes in multiple measures of SW and sleep spindle expression. Local declines in multiple sleep spindle measures were also observed. Greater baseline levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurogranin, a postsynaptic protein abundantly expressed in the dendritic spines of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex and implicated in calcium-dependent synaptic plasticity, predicted the magnitude of longitudinal decline in SO-fast sigma coupling strength, which in turn predicted episodic memory performance changes. These findings suggest that longitudinal changes in local sleep oscillatory dynamics are related to decreased synaptic integrity and may serve as an early indicator of memory decline in older adults at risk for Alzheimers disease.

neuroscience↗

Sex-specific associations between astrocytic reactivity and cognitive decline in unimpaired elderly

INTRODUCTIONAstrocyte reactivity may contribute to increased Alzheimers disease (AD) risk in women. Although higher plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels have been reported in women, few studies have investigated sex-specific relationships with other plasma AD biomarkers and cognition. METHODSParticipants were enrolled in the Memory Education and Research Initiative, a longitudinal community-based cohort, and underwent evaluation including blood biomarker sampling. The Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) was included as a replication cohort. RESULTSUnimpaired women exhibited higher plasma GFAP levels than men (N=584). Higher baseline GFAP was associated with worse longitudinal episodic memory, exclusively in women. In addition, both higher baseline and increasing GFAP levels over time were associated with lower longitudinal plasma A{beta}42/40 ratio. The key results were replicated in the ADNI cohort. DISCUSSIONThese findings suggest that astrocytic reactivity is more pronounced in women and may contribute to sex-specific vulnerability to AD-related pathology and cognitive decline.

neuroscience↗

Grey matter microstructural alterations distinguish cognitive impairment in Lewy body diseases

INTRODUCTION.Despite widespread cortical involvement in Lewy body diseases, conventional grey matter MRI measures have limited sensitivity. Microstructural measures from diffusion MRI may be more sensitive to early changes. METHODS.We examined grey matter microstructure in 197 participants across the Lewy body diseases spectrum: 88 Lewy body dementia (LBD), 109 Parkinsons normal cognition (PD-NC), and 46 controls. We compared tissue-weighted neurite density (tNDI), orientation dispersion index (tODI), and free water fraction (FWF) cross-sectionally and longitudinally. We examined relationships between microstructure, disease severity and plasma p-tau217. RESULTS.LBD participants showed widespread cortical and subcortical tODI and FWF increases compared to controls and PD-NC, despite minimal atrophy. These changes correlated with cognitive (but not motor severity) and with p-tau217. In 100 Parkinsons patients followed-up over 3 years, cortical FWF increased in those developing cognitive decline. DISCUSSION.Microstructural measures capture early grey matter changes, offering a sensitive marker of grey matter integrity in Lewy body diseases.

neuroscience↗

A proteomic signature of vascular dysfunction linked to tauopathy and degeneration in the aging brain

Small vessel disease (SVD) impacts healthy aging of organs across the body, yet its contributions to adverse brain aging remain poorly defined. Here we show thromboinflammation, a core feature of SVD, as a driver of adverse brain aging. We identify cerebrospinal fluid fibrinogen as a marker of brain thromboinflammation and screen neurovascular biosignatures mediating its impact on synaptic vulnerability along the full spectrum of brain aging from cognitively typical, amyloid-negative to cognitively impaired, amyloid-positive older adults. We identified 53 proteins mediating fibrinogens effects on synaptic markers in 1,655 donors from three independent cohorts. Single-cell transcriptomic mapping revealed mediator enrichment in neurovascular unit cells. Pathway analysis demonstrated dysregulation of angiogenesis, fibrosis, and immune signaling. Vascular and microglial-enriched biosignatures associated with compromised white matter integrity. These findings indicate thromboinflammation as an early, amyloid-independent pathway to neurodegeneration and tauopathy, establishing vascular health as fundamental to preserving brain healthspan.

neuroscience↗

GluN2A-mediated currents and calcium signal in human iPSC-derived neurons

Gene expression data indicate that during human brain development, neurons change the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) subunit composition to modulate their function, favouring the GluN2A subunit over GluN2B - a hallmark of neuronal maturation. However, evidence supporting this phenomenon in human iPSC-derived neurons remains elusive. Here, using two differentiation methods in parallel (BrainPhys Neuronal Medium, BPM, and Neural Maintenance Medium, NMM), we provide evidence of increased synaptic localization of NMDARs during neuronal maturation and that GluN2A subunit is crucial for the NMDA physiological function-inducing inward currents and calcium entrance at 60 days of differentiation. Calcium responses to specific agonists, particularly NMDA, were elevated in cells cultured under BPM conditions. This is likely attributable to their more mature neuronal phenotype and the RNA-seq-identified upregulation of genes involved in intracellular calcium signaling proteins. Our results offer insight into how glutamate receptor subunits mature during brain development, delineating approaches to study NMDAR activity in health and disease. SUMMARYThis study shows that GluN2A subunit is essential for proper NMDAR function in cultured human neurons, evidenced by changes in intracellular calcium and ionic currents after specific agonist exposure. This places GluN2A at the crossroads of developmental and degenerative disease

neuroscience↗

Human whole epigenome modelling for clinical applications with Pleiades

Gene regulation in humans extends beyond the four-letter genetic code. DNA methylation, in particular, functions as a critical epigenetic regulator, dynamically programming cellular identity, adapting gene expression in response to environmental cues, and underpinning the onset and progression of numerous diseases. Here we present Pleiades, a series of whole-genome epigenetic foundation models spanning three sizes: 90M, 600M, and 7B parameters. Pleiades is trained upon an extensive proprietary corpus of human methylation and genomic data, totalling 1.9T tokens. We introduce alignment embeddings and stacked hierarchical attention techniques to provide precise epigenetic modelling without the need for extended context lengths. Collectively, these advances enable Pleiades to perform a diverse range of down-stream biological and clinical tasks, including genomic regulatory prediction, realistic generation of cell-free DNA fragments and fragment-level cell-type-of-origin classification, within a unified and scalable computational framework. We specifically apply Pleiades to the early detection of clinical Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease from plasma cell-free DNA, achieving high-accuracy detection (AUROC 0.89 for AD and 0.84 for PD) using a minimally invasive blood test. Combined with plasma pTau-217, Pleiades reaches an AUROC of 0.97 for AD, underscoring the promise of multimodal epigenomic and proteomic approaches. Using mechanistic interpretability, we ground Pleiades latent features in interpretable biological signals, relating its Alzheimers predictions to fragmentomic and epigenomic properties of cfDNA. These findings demonstrate the potential of genome-wide epigenomic modelling as a clinically translatable paradigm for diagnostics and precision medicine, though prospective validation in larger, more diverse cohorts will be required to confirm clinical utility.

genomics↗

Slow Wave Sleep Reduces CSF Concentrations of Beta-amyloid and Tau: A Randomized Crossover Study in Healthy Adults

BackgroundSlow-wave sleep has been proposed to facilitate the removal of proteins, implicated in neurodegeneration, from the brain. While mechanistic evidence from animal models is accumulating, direct human data on how slow-wave sleep shapes cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteostasis remain limited, constraining our understanding of physiological resilience to neurodegenerative disease. MethodsTwelve healthy adults (aged 20-40 years) underwent CSF sampling following three controlled sleep conditions in a randomized crossover design; (1) one night of sleep followed by afternoon CSF sampling, (2) one night of sleep followed by morning CSF sampling, and (3) one night of total sleep deprivation followed by morning CSF sampling. Sleep and wakefulness were verified using polysomnography and actigraphy, with >4-week washout periods between conditions. Measured CSF biomarkers included Alzheimers disease-related proteins: beta-amyloid isoforms (A{beta}38, A{beta}40, and A{beta}42), total and phosphorylated tau, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and neurofilament light, as well as orexin, albumin (also measured in serum), and osmolality. Differences between conditions were assessed using Friedman tests with Dunns post hoc correction. ResultsCSF levels of A{beta} and tau tended to be consistently lower after sleep compared with both afternoon sampling and post-sleep deprivation. Concurrently, CSF albumin levels increased after sleep, while neurofilament light and GFAP remained unchanged. Orexin levels rose markedly during sleep deprivation but showed no circadian variation. ConclusionsThese findings support a model in which slow wave sleep enhances CSF turnover, reducing concentrations of specific proteins, including A{beta} and tau. Understanding how sleep regulates the homeostasis of neurodegeneration-related proteins may inform strategies to mitigate disease progression.

neuroscience↗

Gut bacterial metabolite imidazole propionate potentiates Alzheimer's disease pathology

The gut microbiome modulates metabolic and neurovascular processes implicated in Alzheimers disease and related dementias (ADRD), but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we identify the bacterial metabolite imidazole propionate (ImP) as a modifier of ADRD pathology. In a cohort of 1,196 cognitively unimpaired adults, higher plasma ImP levels were associated with lower preclinical cognitive scores and biomarkers of ADRD, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Fecal metagenomic analysis linked putative ImP producers to ADRD phenotypes. Genome-wide integrative analysis revealed a locus on chromosome 12 associated with both plasma ImP levels and AD risk in humans, supporting a host genetic contribution to ImP regulation and a causal role of this metabolite in AD. In mice, chronic ImP administration exacerbated AD-like pathology. Mechanistically, ImP impaired brain endothelial barrier and promoted tau hyperphosphorylation in primary neurons, an effect blocked by glycogen synthase kinase-3{beta} inhibition. Together, our study links ImP to hallmarks of neurodegeneration and suggest that targeting ImP may represent a potential strategy to modify ADRD risk.

pathology↗

Non-Physiological Potassium Concentrations in Commercial Culture Media Trigger Acute Epileptiform Activity in Human iPSC-Derived Neurons

Neuronal in vitro cultures are pivotal for studying brain electrophysiological function and dysfunction. Neuronal activity and communication are regulated by extracellular ion concentrations. Therefore, cell culture medium ion concentrations should ideally mimic those of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) - considered as the milieu for brain cells in vivo. In this study, we demonstrate that commonly used cell culture media, including Neurobasal (+/- A), Neurobasal Plus, and BrainPhys media, do not accurately replicate human CSF ion concentrations. Using human iPSC-derived neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays, we show that the abnormally high potassium concentrations present in all tested cell culture media induce acute epileptiform activity, similar to that elicited by the convulsive drug 4- aminopyridine. These findings raise a critical question: How can human in vitro neuronal activity be defined as physiological and reliably distinguished from pathophysiological activity, if the routinely used ion concentrations in in vitro experiments are causing aberrant neuronal activity? SummaryThe neuronal activity in neuronal in vitro culture relies on extracellular ion concentrations, which should mimic cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This study shows that common cell culture media and widely used artificial CSF composition in neuroscience research fail to replicate CSF ion levels, causing non-physiological and rather pathological neuronal activity.

neuroscience↗

Independent Generation of Amyloid-β via Novel APP Transcripts

The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is processed by multiple enzymes to generate biologically active peptides, including amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}), which aggregates to form the hallmark pathology of Alzheimers disease (AD). A{beta} is produced through an initial {beta}-secretase cleavage of APP, generating a 99-amino acid C-terminal fragment (APP-C99). Subsequent cleavage of APP-C99 by {gamma}-secretase produces A{beta} peptides of varying lengths. To better understand the transcriptional regulation of A{beta} production, we employed long-read RNA sequencing and identified previously unannotated transcripts encoding APP-C99 with an additional methionine residue (APP-C100), generated independently of {beta}-secretase cleavage. These transcripts are expressed separately from full-length APP, and we observed that cells lacking full-length APP can still produce A{beta} through these shorter isoforms. Importantly, mass spectrometry analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) revealed peptides consistent with the methionine-extended A{beta} species, supporting the in vivo translation of these transcripts. Our findings reveal an alternative pathway for A{beta} generation and aggregation, highlighting a potential new target for modulating A{beta} accumulation in AD.

neuroscience↗

Measuring neurofilament light in human plasma and cerebrospinal fluid: a comparison of five analytical immunoassays

ObjectivesNeurofilament light (NfL) is an established biofluid marker of neuroaxonal injury for neurological diseases. Several high-throughput and sensitive immunoassays have been developed to quantify NfL in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), facilitating the use of NfL as a biomarker in research and clinical practice. However, because of the lack of rigorous comparisons of assays, it has been difficult to determine whether data are comparable and whether assay performance differs. Here, we compared the performance of five NfL immunoassays. MethodsTo assess the five NfL immunoassays (Fujirebio, ProteinSimple, Quanterix, Roche and Siemens), we used pooled plasma or pooled CSF, as well as unique samples from 20 healthy controls and 20 individuals with El Escorial defined probable or definite amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to evaluate precision, parallelism and/or bias. We also examined correlations between plasma and CSF NfL concentrations within and across assays and evaluated their ability to differentiate healthy controls from individuals with ALS. ResultsFour of the five assays demonstrated exemplary performance based on our analyses of precision and parallelism. Across the five assays, NfL concentrations were lower in plasma than in CSF, although they displayed a high degree of correlation. We noted bias across assays; plasma NfL concentrations were lowest for the Roche assay and highest for the ProteinSimple assay. In addition, all assays reliably distinguished healthy controls from individuals with ALS using plasma or CSF NfL. ConclusionsFour NfL assays demonstrated similar analytic performance. Alongside performance, other factors such as costs, accessibility, useability, footprint, and intended use, should be considered.

neuroscience↗

Associations between fluid biomarkers and PET imaging (UCB-J) of synaptic pathology in Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTIONPositron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging with ligands for synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) has emerged as a promising methodology for measuring synaptic density in Alzheimers disease (AD). We investigate the relationship between SV2A PET and CSF synaptic protein changes of AD patients. METHODTwenty-one participants with early AD and 7 cognitively normal (CN) individuals underwent [11C]UCB-J PET. We used mass spectrometry to measure a panel of synaptic proteins in CSF. RESULTSIn the AD group, higher levels of syntaxin-7 and PEBP-1 were associated with lower global synaptic density. In the total sample, lower global synaptic density was associated with higher levels of AP2B1, neurogranin, {gamma}-synuclein, GDI-1, PEBP-1, syntaxin-1B, and syntaxin-7 but not with the levels of the neuronal pentraxins or 14-3-3 zeta/delta. CONCLUSIONReductions of synaptic density found in AD compared to CN participants using [11C]UCB-J PET were observed to be associated with CSF biomarker levels of synaptic proteins.

neuroscience↗

Neuroimaging and plasma biomarker differences and commonalities in Lewy body dementia subtypes

INTRODUCTIONDespite ongoing debate about whether Parkinsons disease dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are separable diseases or a single Lewy body dementia (LBD) spectrum, there are limited neuroimaging investigations of differences between these conditions. METHODSWe used fixel-based diffusion MRI and plasma measures to examine white matter integrity and burden of amyloid pathology (using tau phosphorylated at theonine-217 (p-tau217) in 47 patients with DLB, 21 PDD, 29 PD and 23 age-matched controls. RESULTSWe show reduced fibre cross-section in LBD versus PD, and increased concentrations of plasma neurofilament light chain and p-tau217; with p-tau217 and fibre cross-section associated with cognition. Fibre density was reduced in PDD versus DLB, but neither plasma measures nor fibre cross-section differed between LBD subtypes. DISCUSSIONOur findings suggest differences in white matter integrity between DLB and PDD that are driven by distinct processes from those causing changes in white matter integrity in LBD compared with PD.

neuroscience↗