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Tau covariance patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients match intrinsic connectivity networks in the healthy brain

Journal Article · · NeuroImage: Clinical
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [5];  [3]
  1. Univ. of California, San Francisco, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkelely, CA (United States); VU Univ. Medical Center, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  2. Univ. of California, San Francisco, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, San Francisco, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkelely, CA (United States)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of California, Berkelely, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
According to the network model of neurodegeneration, the spread of pathogenic proteins occurs selectively along connected brain regions. We tested in vivo whether the distribution of filamentous tau (measured with [18F]flortaucipir-PET), fibrillar amyloid-β ([11C]PIB-PET) and glucose hypometabolism ([18F]FDG-PET) follows the intrinsic functional organization of the healthy brain. We included 63 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; 30 male, 63 ± 8 years) who underwent [18F]flortaucipir, [11C]PIB and [18F]FDG PET, and 1000 young adults (427 male, 21 ± 3 years) who underwent task-free fMRI. We selected six predefined disease epicenters as seeds for whole-brain voxelwise covariance analyses to compare correlated patterns of tracer uptake across AD patients against fMRI intrinsic connectivity patterns in young adults. We found a striking convergence between [18F]flortaucipir covariance patterns and intrinsic connectivity maps (range Spearman rho's: 0.32-0.78, p < .001), which corresponded with expected functional networks (range goodness-of-fit: 3.8-8.2). The topography of amyloid-β covariance patterns was more diffuse and less network-specific, while glucose hypometabolic patterns were more spatially restricted than tau but overlapped with functional networks. These findings suggest that the spatial patterns of tau and glucose hypometabolism observed in AD resemble the functional organization of the healthy brain, supporting the notion that tau pathology spreads through circumscribed brain networks and drives neurodegeneration.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation; Marie Curie FP7 International Outgoing Fellowship; National Institutes on Aging; State of California; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1604668
Journal Information:
NeuroImage: Clinical, Journal Name: NeuroImage: Clinical Journal Issue: C Vol. 23; ISSN 2213-1582
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (4)

Three-year changes of cortical 18F-FDG in amnestic vs. non-amnestic sporadic early-onset Alzheimer’s disease journal October 2019
Functional brain architecture is associated with the rate of tau accumulation in Alzheimer’s disease journal January 2020
Is tau in the absence of amyloid on the Alzheimer’s continuum?: A study of discordant PET positivity journal December 2019
Functional pattern of brain FDG-PET in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis journal August 2014

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