Hispanics are at higher risk of dementia due to vascular damage
Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu
SAN ANTONIO, November 21, 2024 – A new neuroimaging marker for cerebral small vessel disease is associated with general cognition and could help identify people at risk for dementia in future clinical trials A groundbreaking study has found that there is.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (UT Health San Antonio), is particularly relevant to South Texas and Hispanics, who are at higher risk for dementia due to vascular damage than non-Hispanic whites. be.
Specifically, researchers found that a cerebral small vessel disease marker known as peak width of skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD) can be used to efficiently process large numbers of brain images in multi-site dementia studies.
“Our biological validation study positions PSMD as a susceptibility/risk biomarker for small vessel disease that contributes to cognitive impairment and dementia, and is an important candidate for use in clinical trials,” said Dr. Claudia Satizabal, Associate Professor at Glenn Biggs University. “We will support the pursuit of large-scale clinical validation studies.” Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Institute at UT Health San Antonio.
She is the author of a study titled “Biological Validation of Skeletonized Mean Diffusivity Peak Width as a VCID Biomarker: The MarkVCID Consortium,” published Nov. 21 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Senior author.
“This research is a direct result of our dedicated partnership over the past seven years with research participants, patients, clinicians, and researchers in the community here at the Glenn Biggs Institute and the South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.” said Sudha Seshadri. , MD, director of the Biggs Institute and another study author.
“Even during the coronavirus pandemic, study participants and researchers worked together to safely perform brain MRI scans and cognitive tests,” she said. “We salute Dr. Satisabal and the team of physicians, participants, and scientists who collaborated with her to validate this important biomarker.”
The global burden of cognitive impairment
A growing body of literature suggests that varying degrees of cerebrovascular pathology are present in most adults suffering from cognitive impairment, the study notes. The vascular contribution to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) is significant, but the frequent occurrence of VCID with other etiologies and comorbidities makes it difficult to determine the number of people affected.
Advances in neuroimaging have identified a high prevalence of brain white matter damage in patients with VCID, and slow progressive changes in the brain associated with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) are the primary mechanisms involved in VCID. There is a consensus that it is.
Furthermore, as life expectancy increases around the world, the global burden of age-related cognitive impairment, including putative vascular etiologies, will increase. Therefore, the study authors believe that any intervention that reduces the burden of VCID should be investigated.
“Despite the urgent need to develop VCID biomarkers, only a few can reliably detect and track SVD changes leading to VCID, and these have not yet been approved by regulatory authorities for use in clinical trials. ” said postdoctoral researcher Dr. Alison Lackey. Biggs Institute Fellow and lead author of the study.
Currently, the most used neuroimaging marker for SVD is white matter hyperintensity (WMH). However, the pathogenesis of WMH remains unclear, with further evidence suggesting not only vascular pathology but also neurodegeneration.
Come in, PSMD.
The new study notes that the PSMD showed good instrumental properties as a marker, meaning it showed reliability across users, sites, and time points. The scientists therefore set out to extend their research to perform biological validation, defined as an association with clinically meaningful aspects of VCID, such as cognitive performance.
The UT Health San Antonio-led team studied a group of 396 participants in the MarkVCID consortium (https://markvcid.partners.org), an initiative of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). We did this. Validate fluid-based and image-based biomarkers of SVD associated with VCID.
In the study, the scientists used an automated algorithm to derive PSMD from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and related it to a composite measure of general cognitive function using a linear regression model adjusted for confounders. .
From there, they observed that higher PSMD on MarkVCID was associated with poorer general cognition, independent of age, gender, education, and intracranial volume. This finding was replicated in three independent samples. Additionally, PSMD described cognitive status beyond WMH, a more common cerebrovascular marker.
Researchers believe that PSMD is non-invasive, fully automated, fast, and highly reliable, reproducible, and reproducible, making it an ideal biomarker for most common dementia clinical trial pipelines. It was concluded that it has the characteristics
Additional longitudinal validation studies are underway to evaluate the use of PSMD as a surrogate for cerebral small vessel disease.
Other authors of the study are affiliated with Boston Chobanian-Avidisian University School of Medicine. Boston University School of Public Health. National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Harvard Medical School; University of New Mexico School of Medicine; University of New Mexico; University of Kentucky; University of California, San Francisco. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Icelandic Heart Association; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Iceland. University of California, Davis. Massachusetts General Hospital; University of Southern California; Mind Research Network. University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Illinois Institute of Technology; and Rush University Medical Center.
UT Health San Antonio is a world-class research university, ranked in the top 5% of institutions worldwide for clinical medicine according to U.S. News & World Report. The university ranks 12th in the world among universities in terms of the impact of its discoveries. Standardized citation impact, which compares the number of citations a study receives per paper to the average of similar published papers, is recognized as a central measure of research impact.
Biological validation of skeletonized mean diffusivity peak width as a VCID biomarker: The MarkVCID Consortium
Alison M. Lackey, Saptaparni Ghosh, Chenping Wang, Alexa Beiser, Rebecca Bernal, Jiguan Li, Jas Mbandazi, Elias Fadai, Haykel Sunusi, Ángel Gabriel Velarde Dedios, Hector A. Trevino, Monica Goss, Laura J. Hilmer, Christopher E. Bauer, and Adam M. Stafaloni, Lara Stables, Marilyn Albert, Jayendra J. Himali, Thomas H. Mosley, Lars Forsberg, Virmundur Gudnason, Baljeet Singh, Harpreet Singh, Ku Ristine Schwab, Joel H. Kramer, Gary A. Rosenberg, Carl G. Helmer, Steven M. Greenberg, Mohammad Harves, Danny J. J. Wang, Brian T. Gold, Hanzhang Lu, Arvind Caprihan, Myriam Fornage, Lenore J. Launer, Konstantinos Arfanakis, Sudha Seshadri, Charles DeCarli, Pauline Maillard, Claudia L. Satizabal
First published: November 21, 2024 Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association
Link to full study: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.14345
The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (UT Health San Antonio) is a major driver of San Antonio’s $44.1 billion health care and bioscience sector and a $413 million annual research portfolio in South Texas. It is the largest academic research institution. With six professional schools, more than 8,500 diverse employees, an annual expense budget of $1.46 billion, and clinical operations that provide 2.6 million patient visits each year, UT drives significant economic impact. Health San Antonio plans to add more than 1,500 high-paying employees. Jobs will be added over the next five years to serve San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas. Visit UTHealthSA.org to learn more about how we make lives better®.
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The Glenn Biggs Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Disease Institute is dedicated to providing comprehensive dementia care while advancing treatments through clinical trials and research. The Biggs Institute is a National Institute on Aging (NIA) designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). In addition to patient care and research, the Biggs Institute partners with the School of Nursing at the University of San Antonio Health Sciences Center to provide care programs for caregivers.
