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TAR-DNA binding protein-43 (TDP-43) proteinopathy is seen in multiple brain diseases. A standardized terminology was recommended recently for common age-related TDP-43 proteinopathy: limbic-predominant, age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE) and the underlying neuropathological changes, LATE-NC. LATE-NC may be co-morbid with Alzheimer’s disease neuropathological changes (ADNC). However, there currently are ill-defined diagnostic classification issues among LATE-NC, ADNC, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 (FTLD-TDP). A practical challenge is that different autopsy cohorts are composed of disparate groups of research volunteers: hospital- and clinic-based cohorts are enriched for FTLD-TDP cases, whereas community-based cohorts have more LATE-NC cases. Neuropathological methods also differ across laboratories. Here, we combined both cases and neuropathologists’ diagnoses from two research centres—University of Pennsylvania and University of Kentucky. The study was designed to compare neuropathological findings between FTLD-TDP and pathologically severe LATE-NC. First, cases were selected from the University of Pennsylvania with pathological diagnoses of either FTLD-TDP (n = 33) or severe LATE-NC (mostly stage 3) with co-morbid ADNC (n = 30). Sections from these University of Pennsylvania cases were cut from amygdala, anterior cingulate, superior/mid-temporal, and middle frontal gyrus. These sections were stained for phospho-TDP-43 immunohistochemically and evaluated independently by two University of Kentucky neuropathologists blinded to case data. A simple set of criteria hypothesized to differentiate FTLD-TDP from LATE-NC was generated based on density of TDP-43 immunoreactive neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions in the neocortical regions. Criteria-based sensitivity and specificity of differentiating severe LATE-NC from FTLD-TDP cases with blind evaluation was ∼90%. Another proposed neuropathological feature related to TDP-43 proteinopathy in aged individuals is ‘Alpha’ versus ‘Beta’ in amygdala. Alpha and Beta status was diagnosed by neuropathologists from both universities (n = 5 raters). There was poor inter-rater reliability of Alpha/Beta classification (mean κ = 0.31). We next tested a separate cohort of cases from University of Kentucky with either FTLD-TDP (n = 8) or with relatively ‘pure’ severe LATE-NC (lacking intermediate or severe ADNC; n = 14). The simple criteria were applied by neuropathologists blinded to the prior diagnoses at University of Pennsylvania. Again, the criteria for differentiating LATE-NC from FTLD-TDP was effective, with sensitivity and specificity ∼90%. If more representative cases from each cohort (including less severe TDP-43 proteinopathy) had been included, the overall accuracy for identifying LATE-NC was estimated at >98% for both cohorts. Also across both cohorts, cases with FTLD-TDP died younger than those with LATE-NC (P

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a 4R-tauopathy predominated by subcortical pathology in neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendroglia associated with various clinical phenotypes. In the present international study, we addressed the question of whether or not sequential distribution patterns can be recognized for PSP pathology. We evaluated heat maps and distribution patterns of neuronal, astroglial, and oligodendroglial tau pathologies and their combinations in different clinical subtypes of PSP in postmortem brains. We used conditional probability and logistic regression to model the sequential distribution of tau pathologies across different brain regions. Tau pathology uniformly predominates in the neurons of the pallido-nigro-luysian axis in different clinical subtypes. However, clinical subtypes are distinguished not only by total tau load but rather cell-type (neuronal versus glial) specific vulnerability patterns of brain regions suggesting distinct dynamics or circuit-specific segregation of propagation of tau pathologies. For Richardson syndrome (n = 81) we recognize six sequential steps of involvement of brain regions by the combination of cellular tau pathologies. This is translated to six stages for the practical neuropathological diagnosis by the evaluation of the subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus, striatum, cerebellum with dentate nucleus, and frontal and occipital cortices. This system can be applied to further clinical subtypes by emphasizing whether they show caudal (cerebellum/dentate nucleus) or rostral (cortical) predominant, or both types of pattern. Defining cell-specific stages of tau pathology helps to identify preclinical or early-stage cases for the better understanding of early pathogenic events, has implications for understanding the clinical subtype-specific dynamics of disease-propagation, and informs tau-neuroimaging on distribution patterns. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00401-020-02158-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE) is characterized by the accumulation of TAR-DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) aggregates in older adults. LATE coexists with Lewy body disease (LBD) as well as other neuropathological changes including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We aimed to identify the pathological, clinical, and genetic characteristics of LATE in LBD (LATE-LBD) by comparing it with LATE in AD (LATE-AD), LATE with mixed pathology of LBD and AD (LATE-LBD + AD), and LATE alone (Pure LATE). We analyzed four cohorts of autopsy-confirmed LBD (n = 313), AD (n = 282), LBD + AD (n = 355), and aging (n = 111). We assessed the association of LATE with patient profiles including LBD subtype and AD neuropathologic change (ADNC). We studied the morphological and distributional differences between LATE-LBD and LATE-AD. By frequency analysis, we staged LATE-LBD and examined the association with cognitive impairment and genetic risk factors. Demographic analysis showed LATE associated with age in all four cohorts and the frequency of LATE was the highest in LBD + AD followed by AD, LBD, and Aging. LBD subtype and ADNC associated with LATE in LBD or AD but not in LBD + AD. Pathological analysis revealed that the hippocampal distribution of LATE was different between LATE-LBD and LATE-AD: neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions were more frequent in cornu ammonis 3 (CA3) in LATE-LBD compared to LATE-AD and abundant fine neurites composed of C-terminal truncated TDP-43 were found mainly in CA2 to subiculum in LATE-LBD, which were not as numerous in LATE-AD. Some of these fine neurites colocalized with phosphorylated α-synuclein. LATE-LBD staging showed LATE neuropathological changes spread in the dentate gyrus and brainstem earlier than in LATE-AD. The presence and prevalence of LATE in LBD associated with cognitive impairment independent of either LBD subtype or ADNC; LATE-LBD stage also associated with the genetic risk variants of TMEM106B rs1990622 and GRN rs5848. These data highlight clinicopathological and genetic features of LATE-LBD.

Tau neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) pathology in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is closely linked to neurodegeneration, and is the early pathological change associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To elucidate patterns of structural change in the MTL specifically associated with tau pathology, we compared high-resolution ex vivo MRI scans of human postmortem MTL specimens with histology-based pathological assessments of the MTL. MTL specimens were obtained from twenty-nine brain donors, including patients with AD, other dementias, and individuals with no known history of neurological disease. Ex vivo MRI scans were combined using a customized groupwise diffeomorphic registration approach to construct a 3D probabilistic atlas that captures the anatomical variability of the MTL. Using serial histology imaging in eleven specimens, we labelled the MTL subregions in the atlas based on cytoarchitecture. Leveraging the atlas and neuropathological ratings of tau and TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) pathology severity, morphometric analysis was performed to correlate regional MTL thickness with the severity of tau pathology, after correcting for age and TDP-43 pathology. We found significant correlations between tau pathology and thickness in the entorhinal cortex (ERC) and stratum radiatum lacunosum moleculare (SRLM). When focusing on cases with low levels of TDP-43 pathology, we found strong associations between tau pathology and thickness in the ERC, SRLM and the subiculum/cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) subfields of the hippocampus, consistent with early Braak stages. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40478-021-01275-7.

Tau pathology is the main driver of neuronal dysfunction in 4-repeat tauopathies (4RT), including cortico-basal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Tau is assumed to spread prion-like across connected neurons, but the mechanisms of tau propagation are largely elusive in 4RTs, characterized not only by neuronal but also by astroglial and oligodendroglial tau accumulation. Here, we assessed whether connectivity drives 4R-tau spreading patterns by combining resting-state fMRI connectomics with both 2nd generation 18F- PI-2620 tau-PET in 46 patients with clinically diagnosed 4RTs and post-mortem cell-type- specific regional tau assessments from two independent PSP samples (n=97/96). We found that inter-regional connectivity was associated with higher inter-regional correlation of both tau- PET and post-mortem tau levels in 4RTs. In regional cell-type specific post-mortem tau assessments, this association was stronger for neuronal than for astroglial or oligodendroglial tau, suggesting that connectivity is primarily associated with trans-neuronal tau spread. Using tau-PET we found that patient-level tau patterns can be predicted by the connectivity of subcortical tau epicenters. Together, the current study provides combined in vivo tau-PET and histopathological evidence for brain connectivity as a key mediator of trans-neuronal tau spreading in 4RTs.

The neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TAR DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43) inclusions (FTLD-TDP) share the neuropathological hallmark of aggregates of TDP-43. However, factors governing the severity and regional distribution of TDP-43 pathology, which may account for the divergent clinical presentations of ALS and FTLD-TDP, are not well-understood. Here, we investigated the influence of genotypes at TMEM106B, a locus associated with risk for FTLD-TDP, and hexanucleotide repeat expansions in C9orf72, a known genetic cause for both ALS and FTLD-TDP, on global TDP-43 pathology and regional distribution of TDP-43 pathology in 899 postmortem cases from a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases. We found that, among the 110 ALS cases, minor (C)- allele homozygotes at the TMEM106B locus sentinel SNP rs1990622 had more TDP-43 pathology globally, as well as in select brain regions. C9orf72 expansions similarly associated with greater TDP-43 pathology in ALS. However, adjusting for C9orf72 expansion status did not affect the relationship between TMEM106B genotype and TDP-43 pathology. In order to elucidate the direction of causality for this association, we directly manipulated TMEM106B levels in an inducible cell system that expresses mislocalized TDP-43 protein. We found that partial knockdown of TMEM106B, to levels similar to what would be expected in rs1990622 C allele carriers, led to development of more TDP-43 cytoplasmic aggregates, which were more insoluble, in this system. Taken together, our results support a causal role for TMEM106B in modifying the development of TDP-43 proteinopathy.

Tau protein neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are closely linked to neuronal/synaptic loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias. Our knowledge of the pattern of NFT progression in the human brain, critical to the development of imaging biomarkers and interpretation of in vivo imaging studies in AD, is based on conventional 2D histology studies that only sample the brain sparsely. To address this limitation, ex vivo MRI and dense serial histological imaging in 18 human medial temporal lobe (MTL) specimens were used to construct 3D quantitative maps of NFT burden in the MTL at individual and group levels. These maps reveal significant variation in NFT burden along the anterior-posterior axis. While early NFT pathology is thought to be confined to the transentorhinal region, we find similar levels of NFT burden in this region and other MTL subregions, including amygdala, temporopolar cortex, and subiculum/CA1.

Tau protein neurofibrillary tangles are closely linked to neuronal/synaptic loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Our knowledge of the pattern of neurofibrillary tangle progression in the human brain, critical to the development of imaging biomarkers and interpretation of in vivo imaging studies in Alzheimer’s disease, is based on conventional two-dimensional histology studies that only sample the brain sparsely. To address this limitation, ex vivo MRI and dense serial histological imaging in 18 human medial temporal lobe specimens (age 75.3 ± 11.4 years, range 45 to 93) were used to construct three-dimensional quantitative maps of neurofibrillary tangle burden in the medial temporal lobe at individual and group levels. Group-level maps were obtained in the space of an in vivo brain template, and neurofibrillary tangles were measured in specific anatomical regions defined in this template. Three-dimensional maps of neurofibrillary tangle burden revealed significant variation along the anterior-posterior axis. While early neurofibrillary tangle pathology is thought to be confined to the transentorhinal region, we found similar levels of burden in this region and other medial temporal lobe subregions, including amygdala, temporopolar cortex, and subiculum/cornu ammonis 1 hippocampal subfields. Overall, the three-dimensional maps of neurofibrillary tangle burden presented here provide more complete information about the distribution of this neurodegenerative pathology in the region of the cortex where it first emerges in Alzheimer’s disease, and may help inform the field about the patterns of pathology spread, as well as support development and validation of neuroimaging biomarkers.

Microglia are the resident phagocytes of the central nervous system, and microglial activation is considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies with single-cell RNA analysis of CNS cells in Alzheimer’s disease and diverse other neurodegenerative conditions revealed that the transition from homeostatic microglia to disease-associated microglia was defined by changes of gene expression levels, including down-regulation of the P2Y12 receptor gene (P2Y12R). However, it is yet to be clarified in Alzheimer’s disease brains whether and when this down-regulation occurs in response to amyloid-β and tau depositions, which are core pathological processes in the disease etiology. To further evaluate the significance of P2Y12 receptor alterations in the neurodegenerative pathway of Alzheimer’s disease and allied disorders, we generated an anti-P2Y12 receptor antibody and examined P2Y12 receptor expressions in the brains of humans and model mice bearing amyloid-β and tau pathologies. We observed that the brains of both Alzheimer’s disease and non-Alzheimer’s disease tauopathy patients and tauopathy model mice (rTg4510 and PS19 mouse lines) displayed declined microglial P2Y12 receptor levels in regions enriched with tau inclusions, despite an increase in the total microglial population. Notably, diminution of microglial immunoreactivity with P2Y12 receptor was noticeable prior to massive accumulations of phosphorylated tau aggregates and neurodegeneration in rTg4510 mouse brains, despite a progressive increase of total microglial population. On the other hand, Iba1-positive microglia encompassing compact and dense-cored amyloid-β plaques expressed P2Y12 receptor at varying levels in amyloid precursor protein (APP) mouse models (APP23 and AppNL-F/NL-F mice). By contrast, neuritic plaques in Alzheimer’s disease brains were associated with P2Y12 receptor-negative microglia. These data suggest that the down-regulation of microglia P2Y12 receptor, which is characteristic of disease-associated microglia, is intimately associated with tau rather than amyloid-β pathologies from an early stage and could be a sensitive index for neuroinflammatory responses to Alzheimer’s disease-related neurodegenerative processes., Homeostatic microglial marker P2Y12 receptor was accumulated around amyloid plaques in mouse models; this receptor was reduced in tauopathy mouse models prior to massive tangle formation. The down-regulation of P2Y12 receptor could be a sensitive index for neuroinflammatory responses to tau-induced neurodegeneration., Graphical Abstract Graphical Abstract

Neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) pathology in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is closely linked to neurodegeneration, and is the early pathological change associated with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In this work, we investigate the relationship between MTL morphometry features derived from high-resolution ex vivo imaging and histology-based measures of NFT pathology using a topological unfolding framework applied to a dataset of 18 human postmortem MTL specimens. The MTL has a complex 3D topography and exhibits a high degree of inter-subject variability in cortical folding patterns which poses a significant challenge for volumetric registration methods typically used during MRI template construction. By unfolding the MTL cortex, the proposed framework explicitly accounts for the sheet-like geometry of the MTL cortex and provides a two-dimensional reference coordinate space which can be used to implicitly register cortical folding patterns across specimens based on distance along the cortex despite large anatomical variability. Leveraging this framework in a subset of 15 specimens, we characterize the associations between NFTs and morphological features such as cortical thickness and surface curvature and identify regions in the MTL where patterns of atrophy are strongly correlated with NFT pathology.

Guam amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by neuronal and glial tau pathologies. With the aim to evaluate aging-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG) we examined the collection at the University of Pennsylvania, consisting of blocks of the frontal parietal, temporal, and occipital cortices. Formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were evaluated using anti-tau antibodies PHF-1 and AT8. In addition to neuronal and oligodendroglial tau pathology, granular/fuzzy astrocytes in the gray matter and thorn-shaped astrocytes (TSAs) in subpial location were also observed. Twenty-one out of 33 cases (63%) showed subpial TSAs diffusely along the cortical surface in one or more cortical regions. Accumulation of TSAs in the depth of the sulci were seen in 41% in the temporal, 7% in the frontal and 14% in parietal cortex. This was not associated with perivascular neuronal tau pathology in the depth of the sulci. Accumulation of TSAs in the depth of cortical sulci in this cohort is approximately 20 times more frequent than reported in a European aging cohort. The presence of subpial TSAs in the depth of cortical sulci in CTE and Guam PDC, and less frequently in aging brains, might suggest common mechanisms.Learning ObjectivesDescribe the spectrum of neuropathology in Guam ALS/PDCDescribe the frequency of tau positive cortical subpial thorn-shaped astrocytes

The prevalence of concomitant proteinopathies and heterogeneous clinical symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases hinders the identification of individuals who might be candidates for a particular intervention. Here, by applying an unsupervised clustering algorithm to post-mortem histopathological data from 895 patients with degeneration in the central nervous system, we show that six non-overlapping disease clusters can simultaneously account for tau neurofibrillary tangles, α-synuclein inclusions, neuritic plaques, inclusions of the transcriptional repressor TDP-43, angiopathy, neuron loss and gliosis. We also show that membership to the six transdiagnostic disease clusters, which explains more variance in cognitive phenotypes than can be explained by individual diagnoses, can be accurately predicted from scores of the Mini-Mental Status Exam, protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid, and genotype at the APOE and MAPT loci, via cross-validated multiple logistic regression. This combination of unsupervised and supervised data-driven tools provides a framework that could be used to identify latent disease subtypes in other areas of medicine.

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathological change (LATE-NC) and Lewy bodies occur in the absence of clinical and neuropathological Alzheimer’s disease, but their prevalence and severity dramatically increase in Alzheimer’s disease. To investigate how plaques, tangles, age and apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) interact with co-pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease, we analysed 522 participants ≥50 years of age with and without dementia from the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) autopsy program and 1340 participants in the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database. Consensus criteria were applied for Alzheimer’s disease using amyloid phase and Braak stage. Co-pathology was staged for CAA (neocortical, allocortical, and subcortical), LATE-NC (amygdala, hippocampal, and cortical), and Lewy bodies (brainstem, limbic, neocortical, and amygdala predominant). APOE genotype was determined for all CNDR participants. Ordinal logistic regression was performed to quantify the effect of independent variables on the odds of having a higher stage after checking the proportional odds assumption. We found that without dementia, increasing age associated with all pathologies including CAA (odds ratio 1.63, 95% confidence interval 1.38–1.94, P

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a risk factor for neurodegenerative disease, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Preliminary consensus criteria define the pathognomonic lesion of CTE as patchy tau pathology within neurons and astrocytes at the depths of cortical sulci. However, the specific tau isoform composition and post-translational modifications in CTE remain largely unexplored. Using immunohistochemistry, we performed tau phenotyping of CTE neuropathologies and compared this to a range of tau pathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease, primary age-related tauopathy, ageing-related tau astrogliopathy and multiple subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau inclusions. Cases satisfying preliminary consensus diagnostic criteria for CTE neuropathological change (CTE-NC) were identified (athletes, n = 10; long-term survivors of moderate or severe TBI, n = 4) from the Glasgow TBI Archive and Penn Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank. In addition, material from a range of autopsy-proven ageing-associated and primary tauopathies in which there was no known history of exposure to TBI was selected as non-injured controls (n = 32). Each case was then stained with a panel of tau antibodies specific for phospho-epitopes (PHF1, CP13, AT100, pS262), microtubule-binding repeat domains (3R, 4R), truncation (Tau-C3) or conformation (GT-7, GT-38) and the extent and distribution of staining assessed. Cell types were confirmed with double immunofluorescent labelling. Results demonstrate that astroglial tau pathology in CTE is composed of 4R-immunoreactive thorn-shaped astrocytes, echoing the morphology and immunophenotype of astrocytes encountered in ageing-related tau astrogliopathy. In contrast, neurofibrillary tangles of CTE contain both 3R and 4R tau, with post-translational modifications and conformations consistent with Alzheimer’s disease and primary age-related tauopathy. Our observations establish that the astroglial and neurofibrillary tau pathologies of CTE are phenotypically distinct from each other and recapitulate the tau immunophenotypes encountered in ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. As such, the immunohistochemical distinction of CTE neuropathology from other mixed 3R/4R tauopathies of Alzheimer’s disease and ageing may rest solely on the pattern and distribution of pathology.

Growing evidence suggests overlap between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathophysiology in a subset of patients. Indeed, 50–80% of autopsy cases with a primary clinicopathological diagnosis of Lewy body disease (LBD) – most commonly manifesting during life as PD – have concomitant amyloid-beta and tau pathology, the defining pathologies of AD. Here we evaluated common genetic variants in genome-wide association with AD as predictors of concomitant AD pathology in the brains of people with a primary clinicopathological diagnosis of PD or Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), diseases both characterized by neuronal Lewy bodies. In the first stage of our study, 127 consecutive autopsy-confirmed cases of PD or DLB from a single center were assessed for AD neuropathological change (ADNC), and these same cases were genotyped at 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) found by genome-wide association study to associate with risk for AD. In these 127 Training set individuals, we developed a logistic regression model predicting the presence of ADNC, using backward stepwise regression for model selection and 10-fold cross-validation to estimate performance. The best-fit model generated a risk score for ADNC (ADNC-RS) based on age at disease onset and genotype at three SNPs (APOE, BIN1, and SORL1 loci), with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of 0.751 in our Training set. In the replication stage of our study, we assessed model performance in a separate Test set of the next 81 individuals genotyped in our center. In the Test set, the AUC was 0.781, and individuals with ADNC-RS in the top quintile had four-fold increased likelihood of having AD pathology at autopsy compared with those in each of the lowest two quintiles. Finally, in the validation stage of our study, we applied our ADNC-RS model to 70 LBD individuals from 20 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) whose autopsy and genetic data were available in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) database. In this Validation set, the AUC was 0.754. Thus, in patients with autopsy-confirmed PD or DLB, a simple model incorporating three AD-risk SNPs and age at disease onset substantially enriches for concomitant AD pathology at autopsy, with implications for identifying LBD patients in which targeting amyloid-beta or tau is a therapeutic strategy.

Tau protein neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are linked to neuronal and synaptic loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias. In AD, NFT pathology is known to spread through the cortex in a characteristic pattern, starting in the medial temporal lobe. However, the exact 3D pattern of NFT progression has not been described, and capturing this pattern quantitatively can help inform in vivo AD imaging biomarkers. We present a computational framework for generating 3D maps of NFT load from ex vivo MRI and serial histology. Weakly supervised deep learning is used to detect NFTs on histology slides prepared with an anti-tau immunohistochemistry stain, and a multi-stage registration pipeline that leverages 3D printing is used for histology-MRI alignment. Derived maps of NFT density are strongly concordant with manual NFT counting, as well as categorical NFT severity ratings used for clinical diagnosis.

Earliest neuropathological changes in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) emerge in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). In order for MRI biomarkers to detect changes linked specifically to AD pathology (as opposed to aging or other pathological factors) macroscopic patterns of structural change in the MTL must be linked to the underlying neuropathology. To provide such a linkage, we are conducting an autopsy imaging study combining ex vivo MRI and serial histopathology. Information from multiple subjects can be studied by creating a “population average” atlas of the MTL. We present a groupwise registration approach for constructing the atlas that is able to successfully capture the complex structure of the MTL, and anatomical variability across subjects. This atlas allows us to generate maps of cortical thickness measurements and identify regions in the MTL where structural changes correlate most strongly with AD progression. We show that using this atlas, we are able to find a significant correlation between atrophy and AD pathology in the MTL sub-regions associated with the earliest stages of AD pathology as described by Braak and Braak [1].

In Lewy body diseases-including Parkinson's disease, without or with dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Alzheimer's disease with Lewy body co-pathology 1 -α-synuclein (α-Syn) aggregates in neurons as Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites 2 . By contrast, in multiple system atrophy α-Syn accumulates mainly in oligodendrocytes as glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) 3 . Here we report that pathological α-Syn in GCIs and Lewy bodies (GCI-α-Syn and LB-α-Syn, respectively) is conformationally and biologically distinct. GCI-α-Syn forms structures that are more compact and it is about 1,000-fold more potent than LB-α-Syn in seeding α-Syn aggregation, consistent with the highly aggressive nature of multiple system atrophy. GCI-α-Syn and LB-α-Syn show no cell-type preference in seeding α-Syn pathology, which raises the question of why they demonstrate different cell-type distributions in Lewy body disease versus multiple system atrophy. We found that oligodendrocytes but not neurons transform misfolded α-Syn into a GCI-like strain, highlighting the fact that distinct α-Syn strains are generated by different intracellular milieus. Moreover, GCI-α-Syn maintains its high seeding activity when propagated in neurons. Thus, α-Syn strains are determined by both misfolded seeds and intracellular environments.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions (FTLD-TDP) is associated with the accumulation of pathological neuronal and glial intracytoplasmic inclusions as well as accompanying neuron loss. We explored if cortical neurons detected by NeuN decreased with increasing TDP-43 inclusion pathology in the postmortem brains of 63 patients with sporadic and familial FTLD-TDP. Semi-automated quantitative algorithms to quantify histology in tissue sections stained with antibodies specific for pathological or phosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP-43) and NeuN were developed and validated in affected (cerebral cortex) and minimally affected (cerebellar cortex) brain regions of FTLD-TDP cases. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for NeuN and other neuronal markers found numerous neurons lacking reactivity, suggesting NeuN may reflect neuron health rather than neuron loss in FTLD. We found three patterns of NeuN and pTDP-43 reactivity in our sample of cortical tissue representing three intracortical region-specific stages of FTLD-TDP progression: Group 1 showed low levels of pathological pTDP-43 and high levels NeuN, while Group 2 showed increased levels of pTDP-43, and Group 3 tissues were characterized by reduced staining for both pTDP-43 and NeuN. Comparison of non-C9orf72/GRN FTLD-TDP with cases linked to both GRN mutations and C9orf72 expansions showed a significantly increased frequency of Group 3 histopathology in the latter cases, suggesting more advanced cortical disease. Hence, we propose that IHC profiles of pTDP-43 and NeuN reflect the burden of pTDP-43 and its deleterious effects on neuron health. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40478-017-0471-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aims The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that different conformations of misfolded α-synuclein (α-syn) are present in Parkinson's disease (PD) brain. Methods Using two previously characterized conformations of α-syn fibrils, we generated new conformation-selective α-syn monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). We then interrogated multiple brain regions in a well-characterized autopsy cohort of PD patients (n = 49) with these mAbs, Syn7015 and Syn9029. Results Syn7015 detects Lewy bodies (LBs) and Lewy neurites (LNs) formed by pathological α-syn in all brain regions tested, and is particularly sensitive to LNs and small Lewy dots, inclusions believed to form early in the disease. Further, we observed colocalization between Syn7015 and an early marker of α-syn pathology formation, phospho-Ser129-α-syn, and a lack of extensive colocalization with markers of more mature pathology. In comparison, Syn9029 detects Lewy pathology in all regions examined, but indicates significantly fewer LNs than Syn7015. In addition, colocalization of Syn9029 with later markers of α-syn pathology maturation (ubiquitin and P62) suggests that the pathology detected by Syn9029 is older. Semiquantitative scoring of both LN and LB pathology in nine brain regions further established this trend, with Syn7015 LN scores consistently higher than Syn9029 LN scores. Conclusions Our data indicate that different conformations of α-syn pathology are present in PD brain and correspond to different stages of maturity for Lewy pathology. Regional analysis of Syn7015 and Syn9029 immunostaining also provides support for the Braak hypothesis that α-syn pathology advances through the brain.

The term "aging-related tau astrogliopathy" (ARTAG) describes pathological accumulation of abnormally phosphorylated tau protein in astrocytes. We evaluated the correlates of ARTAG types (i.e., subpial, subependymal, white and gray matter, and perivascular) in different neuroanatomical regions. Clinical, neuropathological, and genetic (eg, APOE ε4 allele, MAPT H1/H2 haplotype) data from 628 postmortem brains from subjects were investigated; most of the patients had been longitudinally followed at the University of Pennsylvania. We found that (i) the amygdala is a hotspot for all ARTAG types; (ii) age at death, male sex, and presence of primary frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) tauopathy are significantly associated with ARTAG; (iii) age at death, greater degree of brain atrophy, ventricular enlargement, and Alzheimer disease (AD)-related variables are associated with subpial, white matter, and perivascular ARTAG types; (iv) AD-related variables are associated particularly with lobar white matter ARTAG; and (v) gray matter ARTAG in primary FTLD-tauopathies appears in areas without neuronal tau pathology. We provide a reference map of ARTAG types and propose at least 5 constellations of ARTAG. Furthermore, we propose a conceptual link between primary FTLD-tauopathy and ARTAG-related astrocytic tau pathologies. Our observations serve as a basis for etiological stratification and definition of progression patterns of ARTAG.

Tauopathies are a major group of neurodegenerative proteinopathies characterized by the accumulation of abnormal and hyperphosphorylated tau proteins in the brain. Tau pathology is characterized as 3R (repeat) or 4R predominant or mixed 3R and 4R type. Here we report three cases lacking mutations in the microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT) gene with unusual tau pathology. The age at onset and duration of illness, respectively, were 63 and 20 years (male), 67 and 5 years (female) and 72 and 20 years (female). The clinical presentation was compatible with a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in two subjects and with cognitive decline in all three subjects. Common neuropathological features included neuronal loss in the hippocampus and dentate gyrus associated with spherical basophilic Pick body-like inclusions showing 4R tau immunoreactivity, which was supported by the detection of predominantly 4R tau species by Western blot examination. In addition, accumulation of tau immunoreactive argyrophilic astrocytes in the hippocampus and amygdala and oligodendroglial coiled bodies in the hippocampal white matter were observed. These morphologies appeared in combination with Alzheimer disease-related pathology and subcortical tau pathology compatible with PSP. Together with a single case report in the literature, our observations on these three cases expand the spectrum of previously described tauopathies. We suggest that this tauopathy variant with hippocampal 4R tau immunoreactive spherical inclusions might contribute to the cognitive deficits in the patients reported here. The precise definition of the clinicopathological relevance of these unusual tau pathologies merits further study.

Distinct neuronal and glial tau pathologies define corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Additional Alzheimer disease, TDP-43, and Lewy body copathologies are also common. The interplay of these pathologies with clinical symptoms remains unclear as individuals can present with corticobasal syndrome, frontotemporal dementia, PSP, or atypical Parkinsonism and may have additional secondary impairments. We report clinical, pathological, and genetic interactions in a cohort of CBD and PSP cases. Neurofibrillary tangles and plaques were common. Apolipoprotein E (APOE)ε4 carriers had more plaques while PSP APOEε2 carriers had fewer plaques. TDP-43 copathology was present and age-associated in 14% of PSP, and age-independent in 33% of CBD. Lewy body copathology varied from 9% to 15% and was not age-associated. The primary FTD-Tau burden—a sum of the neuronal, astrocytic and oligodendrocytic tau—was not age-, APOE-, or MAPT-related. In PSP, FTD-Tau, independent of copathology, associated with executive, language, motor, and visuospatial impairments, while PSP with Parkinsonism had a lower FTD-Tau burden, but this was not the case in CBD. Taken together, our results indicate that the primary tauopathy burden is the strongest correlate of clinical PSP, while copathologies are principally determined by age and genetic risk factors.

Introduction It is unclear how different proteinopathies (tau, transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 [TDP-43], amyloid β [Aβ], and α-synuclein) contribute to atrophy within medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods We utilized antemortem structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to measure MTL substructures and examined the relative contribution of tau, TDP-43, Aβ, and α-synuclein measured in post-mortem tissue from 92 individuals with intermediate to high AD neuropathology. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed for each subregion in order to discriminate TDP-43-negative and TDP-43-positive patients. Results TDP-43 was strongly associated with anterior MTL regions, whereas tau was relatively more associated with the posterior hippocampus. Among the MTL regions, the anterior hippocampus showed the highest area under the ROC curve (AUC). Discussion We found specific contributions of different pathologies on MTL substructure in this population with AD neuropathology. The anterior hippocampus may be a relevant region to detect concomitant TDP-43 pathology in the MTL of patients with AD.

Pathological tau aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration-tau (FTLD-tau) adopt distinct conformations differentiated by the AD-tau specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) GT-38 that are not readily visualized using phosphorylation-specific anti-tau mAbs. To determine the extent of co-morbid AD-tau pathology in FTLD-tau, we performed immunohistochemical (IHC) staining with GT-38 and assigned Braak stages of AD-tau in a cohort 180 FTLD-tau cases consisting of corticobasal degeneration (CBD; n = 49), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP; n = 109), and Pick’s disease (PiD; n = 22). Nearly two-thirds of patients (n = 115 of 180, 63.8%) with FTLD-tau had some degree of comorbid AD-tau pathology and 20.5% of the FTLD-tau cohort had Braak stage ≥B2, consistent with medium-to-high-level AD neuropathological change (ADNPC). The PSP group had the highest frequency of medium-high AD-tau pathology compared to other tauopathies (PSP = 31/109, 28.4%; Picks = 2/22, 9.1%, CBD = 4/49, 8.2%) but neuropathological diagnosis was not found to be a significant independent predictor of medium-high AD Braak stage in a multivariate model after accounting for age at death (OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.03–1.15; p = 0.002) and CERAD plaque scores (OR = 3.75, 95% CI = 1.58–8.89; p = 0.003), suggesting there is no predilection for a specific FTLD tauopathy to develop AD-tau co-pathology after accounting for age. Patients with FTLD-tau who had, clinically significant, medium-high AD-tau pathology had significantly higher antemortem CSF levels of both total-tau (t-tau; mean = 89.98 pg/ml, SD = 36.70 pg/ml) and phosphorylated-tau (p-tau; mean = 20.45 pg/ml, SD = 9.31 pg/ml) compared to patients with negligible-low AD-tau, t-tau (mean = 43.04 pg/ml, SD = 25.40 pg/ml) and p-tau (mean = 11.90 pg/ml, SD = 4.48 pg/ml) (p ≤ 0.001 both). Finally, in an exploratory analysis in our largest pathology group (PSP) we find an association of GT-38 AD-tau Braak stage with lower baseline MMSE (p = 0.03). Together, these finding validate the use of GT-38 to selectively detect AD-tau pathology in the context of FTLD-tau and provides a novel tool to investigate associations of clinical phenotypes amongst co-morbid tauopathies.

We aimed to determine patterns of α-synuclein (α-syn) pathology in multiple system atrophy (MSA) using 70-µm-thick sections of 20 regions of the central nervous system of 37 cases with striato-nigral degeneration (SND) and 10 cases with olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy (OPCA). In SND cases with the shortest disease duration (phase 1), α-syn pathology was observed in striatum, lentiform nucleus, substantia nigra, brainstem white matter tracts, cerebellar subcortical white matter as well as motor cortex, midfrontal cortex, and sensory cortex. SND with increasing duration of disease (phase 2) was characterized by involvement of spinal cord and thalamus, while phase 3 was characterized by involvement of hippocampus and amygdala. Cases with the longest disease duration (phase 4) showed involvement of the visual cortex. We observed an increasing overlap of α-syn pathology with increasing duration of disease between SND and OPCA, and noted increasingly similar regional distribution patterns of α-syn pathology. The GBA variant, p.Thr408Met, was found to have an allele frequency of 6.94% in SND cases which was significantly higher compared with normal (0%) and other neurodegenerative disease pathologies (0.74%), suggesting that it is associated with MSA. Our findings indicate that SND and OPCA show distinct early foci of α-syn aggregations, but increasingly converge with longer disease duration to show overlapping patterns of α-syn pathology.

Lewy bodies commonly occur in Alzheimer's disease, and Alzheimer's disease pathology is frequent in Lewy body diseases, but the burden of co-pathologies across neurodegenerative diseases is unknown. We assessed the extent of tau, amyloid-β, α-synuclein and TDP-43 proteinopathies in 766 autopsied individuals representing a broad spectrum of clinical neurodegenerative disease. We interrogated pathological Alzheimer's disease (n = 247); other tauopathies (n = 95) including Pick's disease, corticobasal disease and progressive supranuclear palsy; the synucleinopathies (n = 164) including multiple system atrophy and Lewy body disease; the TDP-43 proteinopathies (n = 188) including frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; and a minimal pathology group (n = 72). Each group was divided into subgroups without or with co-pathologies. Age and sex matched logistic regression models compared co-pathology prevalence between groups. Co-pathology prevalence was similar between the minimal pathology group and most neurodegenerative diseases for each proteinopathy: tau was nearly universal (92-100%), amyloid-β common (20-57%); α-synuclein less common (4-16%); and TDP-43 the rarest (0-16%). In several neurodegenerative diseases, co-pathology increased: in Alzheimer's disease, α-synuclein (41-55%) and TDP-43 (33-40%) increased; in progressive supranuclear palsy, α-synuclein increased (22%); in corticobasal disease, TDP-43 increased (24%); and in neocortical Lewy body disease, amyloid-β (80%) and TDP-43 (22%) increased. Total co-pathology prevalence varied across groups (27-68%), and was increased in high Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and neocortical Lewy body disease (70-81%). Increased age at death was observed in the minimal pathology group, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple system atrophy cases with co-pathologies. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neocortical Lewy body disease, co-pathologies associated with APOE ɛ4. Lewy body disease cases with Alzheimer's disease co-pathology had substantially lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores than pure Lewy body disease. Our data imply that increased age and APOE ɛ4 status are risk factors for co-pathologies independent of neurodegenerative disease; that neurodegenerative disease severity influences co-pathology as evidenced by the prevalence of co-pathology in high Alzheimer's disease and neocortical Lewy body disease, but not intermediate Alzheimer's disease or limbic Lewy body disease; and that tau and α-synuclein strains may also modify co-pathologies since tauopathies and synucleinopathies had differing co-pathologies and burdens. These findings have implications for clinical trials that focus on monotherapies targeting tau, amyloid-β, α-synuclein and TDP-43.

Aging-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG) describes tau pathology in astrocytes in different locations and anatomical regions. In the present study we addressed the question of whether sequential distribution patterns can be recognized for ARTAG or astroglial tau pathologies in both primary FTLD-tauopathies and non-FTLD-tauopathy cases. By evaluating 687 postmortem brains with diverse disorders we identified ARTAG in 455. We evaluated frequencies and hierarchical clustering of anatomical involvement and used conditional probability and logistic regression to model the sequential distribution of ARTAG and astroglial tau pathologies across different brain regions. For subpial and white matter ARTAG we recognize three and two patterns, respectively, each with three stages initiated or ending in the amygdala. Subependymal ARTAG does not show a clear sequential pattern. For grey matter (GM) ARTAG we recognize four stages including a striatal pathway of spreading towards the cortex and/or amygdala, and the brainstem, and an amygdala pathway, which precedes the involvement of the striatum and/or cortex and proceeds towards the brainstem. GM ARTAG and astrocytic plaque pathology in corticobasal degeneration follows a predominantly frontal-parietal cortical to temporal-occipital cortical, to subcortical, to brainstem pathway (four stages). GM ARTAG and tufted astrocyte pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy shows a striatum to frontal-parietal cortical to temporal to occipital, to amygdala, and to brainstem sequence (four stages). In Pick’s disease cases with astroglial tau pathology an overlapping pattern with PSP can be appreciated. We conclude that tau-astrogliopathy type-specific sequential patterns cannot be simplified as neuron-based staging systems. The proposed cytopathological and hierarchical stages provide a conceptual approach to identify the initial steps of the pathogenesis of tau pathologies in ARTAG and primary FTLD-tauopathies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40478-018-0552-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Although the hippocampus is one of the most studied structures in the human brain, limited quantitative data exist on its 3D organization, anatomical variability, and effects of disease on its subregions. Histological studies provide restricted reference information due to their 2D nature. In this paper, high-resolution (∼200 × 200 × 200 μm3) ex vivo MRI scans of 31 human hippocampal specimens are combined using a groupwise diffeomorphic registration approach into a 3D probabilistic atlas that captures average anatomy and anatomic variability of hippocampal subfields. Serial histological imaging in 9 of the 31 specimens was used to label hippocampal subfields in the atlas based on cytoarchitecture. Specimens were obtained from autopsies in patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD; 9 subjects, 13 hemispheres), of other dementia (nine subjects, nine hemispheres), and in subjects without dementia (seven subjects, nine hemispheres), and morphometric analysis was performed in atlas space to measure effects of age and AD on hippocampal subfields. Disproportional involvement of the cornu ammonis (CA) 1 subfield and stratum radiatum lacunosum moleculare was found in AD, with lesser involvement of the dentate gyrus and CA2/3 subfields. An association with age was found for the dentate gyrus and, to a lesser extent, for CA1. Three-dimensional patterns of variability and disease and aging effects discovered via the ex vivo hippocampus atlas provide information highly relevant to the active field of in vivo hippocampal subfield imaging.

The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the oldest-old is complicated by the increasing prevalence of age-related neurofibrillary tangles, plaques and non-AD pathologies such as cerebrovascular disease (CVD), hippocampal sclerosis (HS), aging-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG), as well as TDP-43 and Lewy pathology. The contribution of these non-AD pathologies to dementia and cognitive resilience is unclear. We assessed the level of AD neuropathologic change (ADNPC) and non-AD pathology in 185 participants enrolled in The 90+ Study with available cognitive assessments and brain tissue. Logistic regression models—adjusting for age, sex and education—determined the association between each pathology and dementia or between subgroups. 53% had dementia, primarily AD or mixed AD; 23% had cognitive impairment without dementia (CIND); 23% were not impaired. Both AD and non-AD pathology was prevalent. 100% had tangles, 81% had plaques, and both tangles and plaques associated with dementia. ARTAG distributed across limbic (70%), brainstem (39%) and cortical regions (24%). 49% had possible CVD and 26% had definite CVD, while HS was noted in 15%. Cortical ARTAG, CVD and HS were each associated with dementia, but limbic and brainstem ARTAGs were not. TDP-43 and Lewy pathologies were found in 36 and 17% and both associated with dementia. No pathology distinguished CIND and the not impaired. By NIA-AA criteria and dementia status, the cohort was subdivided into four groups: those with minimal ADNPC included the not dementia (ND) and Not AD dementia groups; and those with significant ADNPC included the Resilient without dementia and AD dementia groups. Compared to the ND group, the Not AD dementia group had more HS, cortical ARTAG, TDP-43, and Lewy pathology. Compared to the AD dementia group, the Resilient group had less CVD, no HS and less cortical ARTAG, TDP-43 and Lewy pathology. Our findings imply that reductions in non-AD pathologies including CVD contribute to cognitive resilience in the oldest-old.

We examined the phosphorylated 43-kDa TAR DNA-binding protein (pTDP-43) inclusions as well as neuronal loss in full-length spinal cords and five selected regions of the central nervous system from 36 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 10 age-matched normal controls. The most severe neuronal loss and pTDP-43 lesions were seen in lamina IX motor nuclei columns 4, 6, and 8 of lower cervical segments and in columns 9–11 of lumbosacral segments. Severity of pTDP-43 pathology and neuronal loss correlated closely with gray and white matter oligodendroglial involvement and was linked to onset of disease, with severe involvement of columns 4, 6, and 8 of upper extremity onset cases and severe involvement of columns of 9, 10, and 11 in cases with lower extremity onset. Severe TDP-43 lesions and neuronal loss were observed in stage 4 cases and sometimes included Onuf’s nucleus. Notably, three cases displayed pTDP-43 aggregates in the midbrain oculomotor nucleus, which we had not seen previously even in cases with advanced (i.e., stage 4) pathology. pTDP-43 aggregates were observed in neurons of Clarke’s column in 30.6 % of cases but rarely in the intermediolateral nucleus (IML). Gray matter oligodendroglial pTDP-43 inclusions were present in areas devoid of neuronal pTDP-43 aggregates and neuronal loss. Taken together, our findings indicate that (1) the dorsolateral motor nuclei columns of the cervical and lumbosacral anterior horn may be the earliest foci of pTDP-43 pathology in the spinal cord, (2) gray matter oligodendroglial involvement is an early event in the ALS disease process that possibly heralds subsequent involvement of neurons by pTDP-43 pathology, and (3) in some very advanced cases, there is oculomotor nucleus involvement, which may constitute an additional neuropathological stage (designated here as stage 5) of pTDP-43 pathology in ALS.

Automatic segmentation of cortical and subcortical structures is commonplace in brain MRI literature and is frequently used as the first step towards quantitative analysis of structural and functional neuroimaging. Most approaches to brain structure segmentation are based on propagation of anatomical information from example MRI datasets, called atlases or templates, that are manually labeled by experts. The accuracy of automatic segmentation is usually validated against the “bronze” standard of manual segmentation of test MRI datasets. However, good performance vis-a-vis manual segmentation does not imply accuracy relative to the underlying true anatomical boundaries. In the context of segmentation of hippocampal subfields and functionally related medial temporal lobe cortical subregions, we explore the challenges associated with validating existing automatic segmentation techniques against underlying histologically-derived anatomical “gold” standard; and, further, developing automatic in vivo MRI segmentation techniques informed by histological imaging.

Aims To identify early foci of α-synuclein (α-syn pathology) accumulation, subsequent progression and neurodegeneration in multiple system atrophy of the cerebellar type (MSA-C). Methods We analyzed 70 μm thick sections of 10 cases with MSA-C and 24 normal controls. Results MSA-C cases with the lowest burden of pathology showed α-syn glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) in the cerebellum as well as in medullary and pontine cerebellar projections. Cerebellar pathology was highly selective and severely involved subcortical white matter, whereas deep white matter and granular layer were only mildly affected and the molecular layer was spared. Loss of Purkinje cells (PC) increased with disease duration and was associated with neuronal and axonal abnormalities. Neocortex, basal ganglia, and spinal cord became consecutively involved with the increasing burden of α-syn pathology, followed by hippocampus, amygdala, and, finally, the visual cortex. GCIs were associated with myelinated axons, and the severity of GCIs correlated with demyelination. Conclusions Our findings indicate that cerebellar subcortical white matter and cerebellar brainstem projections are likely the earliest foci of α-syn pathology in MSA-C, followed by involvement of more widespread regions of the CNS and neurodegeneration with disease progression. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Intralesional (IL) therapy is under investigation to treat dermal and subcutaneous metastatic cancer. Rose bengal (RB) is a staining agent that was originally used by ophthalmologists and in liver function studies. IL injection of RB has been shown to induce regression of injected and uninjected tumors in murine models and clinical trials. In this study, we have shown a mechanism of tumor-specific immune response induced by IL RB. In melanoma-bearing mice, IL RB induced regression of injected tumor and inhibited the growth of bystander lesions mediated by CD8+ T cells. IL RB resulted in necrosis of tumor cells and the release of High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1), with increased dendritic cell (DC) infiltration into draining lymph nodes and the activation of tumor-specific T cells. Treatment of DC with tumor supernatants increased the ability of DCs to stimulate T cell proliferation, and blockade of HMGB1 in the supernatants suppressed DC activity. Additionally, increased HMGB1 levels were measured in the sera of melanoma patients treated with IL RB. These results support the role of IL RB to activate dendritic cells at the site of tumor necrosis for the induction of a systemic anti-tumor immune response.

Risks associated with brain biopsy limit availability of tissues and the role of brain biopsy in diagnosing neurodegeneration is unclear. We developed a simulated brain biopsy paradigm to comprehensively evaluate potential accuracy of detecting neurodegeneration in biopsies. Postmortem tissue from the frontal, temporal and parietal cortices and basal ganglia from 73 cases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Lewy body disease (LBD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration-TDP43 (FTLD-TDP), multiple system atrophy (MSA), Pick’s disease (PiD), corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) were evaluated using H&E and immunostains. Brain biopsy was simulated in a blinded manner by masking each slide with opaque tape except for an area measuring 10 mm in diameter. Diagnoses obtained from frontal cortex only or all 4-brain regions were then compared with autopsy diagnoses. Diagnostic sensitivity in frontal cortex was highest in FTLD-TDP (88%), AD (80%) and LBD (79%); intermediate for MSA (71%), CBD (66%) and PiD (66%) and lowest for PSP (0%) (average 64%). Specificity was 43%. Sensitivities were enhanced with all 4-brain regions: FTLD-TDP (100%), AD (80%), LBD (100%), MSA (100%), CBD (83%), PiD (100%) and PSP (88%) (average 92%). Specificity was 71%. Simulated brain biopsy addressed limitations of standard brain biopsies such as tissue availability and lack of autopsy confirmation of diagnoses. These data could inform efforts to establish criteria for biopsy diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders to guide care of individuals who undergo biopsy for enigmatic causes of cognitive impairment or when evidence of an underlying neurodegenerative disease may influence future therapy.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the viability of conducting a theory-based physical activity (PA) intervention on men with prostate cancer, and the impact of PA on quality of life (QOL). Participants were 31 men, average age of 67 years, with localized or metastatic prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Global QOL, fatigue, and PA measures were conducted at baseline and following the 12-week intervention. An additional follow-up testing was conducted 4 months following the intervention (n = 18). Both moderate and strenuous bouts of exercise, as well as functional capacity, increased significantly from pre- to posttest. Both fatigue severity and resting heart rate decreased significantly at posttest. A trend toward improved global QOL was also noted. It was concluded that a 12-week home-based PA intervention may provide health and QOL benefits for prostate cancer patients undergoing ADT. Practitioners are encouraged to promote PA for prostate cancer survivors.

Multiple techniques for quantification of hippocampal subfields from in vivo MRI have been proposed. Linking in vivo MRI to the underlying histology can help validate and improve these techniques. High-resolution ex vivo MRI can provide an intermediate modality to map information between these very different imaging modalities. This article evaluates the ability to match information between in vivo and ex vivo MRI in the same subjects. We perform rigid and deformable registration on 10 pairs of in vivo (3 T, 0.4 × 0.4 × 2.6 mm3) and ex vivo (9.4 T, 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.2 mm3) scans, and describe differences in MRI appearance between these modalities qualitatively and quantitatively. The feasibility of using this dataset to validate in vivo segmentation is evaluated by applying an automatic hippocampal subfield segmentation technique (ASHS) to in vivo scans and comparing SRLM (stratum/radiatum/lacunosum/moleculare) surface to manual tracing on corresponding ex vivo scans (and in 2 cases, histology). Regional increases in thickness are detected in ex vivo scans adjacent to the ventricles and were not related to scanner, resolution differences, or susceptibility artefacts. Satisfactory in vivo/ex vivo registration and subvoxel accuracy of ASHS segmentation of hippocampal SRLM demonstrate the feasibility of using this dataset for validation, and potentially, improvement of in vivo segmentation methods.

Microglia coordinate various functions in the central nervous system ranging from removing synaptic connections, to maintaining brain homeostasis by monitoring neuronal function, and clearing protein aggregates across the lifespan. Here we investigated whether increased microglial phagocytic activity that clears amyloid can also cause pathological synapse loss. We identified TDP-43, a DNA-RNA binding protein encoded by the Tardbp gene, as a strong regulator of microglial phagocytosis. Mice lacking TDP-43 in microglia exhibit reduced amyloid load in a model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but at the same time display drastic synapse loss, even in the absence of amyloid. Clinical examination from TDP-43 pathology cases reveal a considerably reduced prevalence of AD and decreased amyloid pathology compared to age-matched healthy controls, confirming our experimental results. Overall, our data suggest that dysfunctional microglia might play a causative role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, critically modulating the early stages of cognitive decline., Neuron, 95 (2), ISSN:0896-6273, ISSN:1097-4199

Purpose: Cultured tumor fragments from melanoma metastases have been used for years as a source of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) for adoptive cell therapy (ACT). The expansion of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells with interleukin-2 (IL2) in these early cultures is critical in generating clinically active TIL infusion products, with a population of activated 4-1BB CD8+ T cells recently found to constitute the majority of tumor-specific T cells. Experimental Design: We used an agonistic anti–4-1BB antibody added during the initial tumor fragment cultures to provide in situ 4-1BB costimulation. Results: We found that addition of an agonistic anti–4-1BB antibody could activate 4-1BB signaling within early cultured tumor fragments and accelerated the rate of memory CD8+ TIL outgrowth that were highly enriched for melanoma antigen specificity. This was associated with NFκB activation and the induction of T-cell survival and memory genes, as well as enhanced IL2 responsiveness, in the CD8+ T cells in the fragments and emerging from the fragments. Early provision of 4-1BB costimulation also affected the dendritic cells (DC) by activating NFκB in DC and promoting their maturation inside the tumor fragments. Blocking HLA class I prevented the enhanced outgrowth of CD8+ T cells with anti–4-1BB, suggesting that an ongoing HLA class I–mediated antigen presentation in early tumor fragment cultures plays a role in mediating tumor-specific CD8+ TIL outgrowth. Conclusions: Our results highlight a previously unrecognized concept in TIL ACT that the tumor microenvironment can be dynamically regulated in the initial tumor fragment cultures to regulate the types of T cells expanded and their functional characteristics. Clin Cancer Res; 21(3); 611–21. ©2014 AACR.

Pathological 43-kDa transactive responsive DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) has been identified as the major, i.e. disease defining, pathological protein in the majority of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) or frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) with ubiquitin-positive inclusions (FTLD-U) with or without motor neuron disease (MND), which is known now as FTLD-TDP (1,2). ALS has been linked to FTLD through TDP-43 pathology that may be widespread in the central nervous system (CNS), thereby creating a new concept of TDP-43 proteinopathy as a disease continuum that encompasses ALS and FTLD as well as rarer conditions such as progressive muscular atrophy or primary lateral sclerosis (3, for review see (4)). TDP-43 pathology in addition, or ‘secondary’, to disease defining inclusion pathologies may occur in other neurodegenerative diseases such as tauopathies or α-synulceinopathies (4). A subgroup of ALS and FTLD cases with neuronal inclusions composed of an ubiquitinated protein, negative for pathological TDP-43, tau, or α-synuclein, was shown to be characterized by the pathological aggregation of a protein called fused in sarcoma (FUS), which shows functional homology to TDP-43 (5–7). Previous to the identification of these two disease defining proteins, there have been reports of single cases of sporadic or familiar ALS or FTLD cases showing pathological tau aggregations (or neurofibrillary tangles) as their pathological hallmark feature with (8) or without (9–14) the presence of additional ubiquitinated inclusions, published by research groups in continental Europe and Asia. The tau pathology in these cases is in part reminiscent of the Parkinsonism-dementia complex and ALS (ALS/PDC) occurring in geographic isolates such as the Kii Peninsula of Japan (15) or Guam in the Mariana Islands (16–18). These are tauopathies that differ from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in terms of their topographical distribution of tau pathology and the lower level of amyloid-β depositions (19). We here report a patient with sporadic ALS and eye closure apraxia from the continental United States showing multisystem tau pathology atypical for AD by morphology in the brain and spinal cord. There also were robust cortical amyloid-β deposits, but no pathognomonic TDP-43, FUS or α-synuclein pathology. We conclude that tau pathology alone is sufficient to cause ALS and FLTD-MND-like neurodegeneration in the continental United States suggesting that, in part, similar pathogenetic mechanisms might be involved in the patient described in this report, as in ALS occurring in the Kii Peninsula and Guam.

A simple model to enhance understanding of the three-dimensional anatomy of the human epicardial coronary artery circulation is discussed and potential instructive applications reviewed. The chambers of the heart are visualized as being related to one another as in a pair of opposed hands, which can be rotated to demonstrate the various structures as viewed in different angles of obliquity.

Alzheimer's disease, which is defined pathologically by abundant amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles concurrent with synaptic and neuronal loss, is the most common underlying cause of dementia in the elderly. Among the oldest-old, those aged 90 and older, other ageing-related brain pathologies are prevalent in addition to Alzheimer's disease, including cerebrovascular disease and hippocampal sclerosis. Although definite Alzheimer's disease pathology can distinguish dementia from normal individuals, the pathologies underlying cognitive impairment, especially in the oldest-old, remain poorly understood. We therefore conducted studies to determine the relative contributions of Alzheimer's disease pathology, cerebrovascular disease, hippocampal sclerosis and the altered expression of three synaptic proteins to cognitive status and global cognitive function. Relative immunohistochemistry intensity measures were obtained for synaptophysin, Synaptic vesicle transporter Sv2 (now known as SV2A) and Vesicular glutamate transporter 1 in the outer molecular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus on the first 157 participants of 'The 90+ Study' who came to autopsy, including participants with dementia (n = 84), those with cognitive impairment but no dementia (n = 37) and those with normal cognition (n = 36). Thal phase, Braak stage, cerebrovascular disease, hippocampal sclerosis and Pathological 43-kDa transactive response sequence DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) were also analysed. All measures were obtained blind to cognitive diagnosis. Global cognition was tested by the Mini-Mental State Examinaton. Logistic regression analysis explored the association between the pathological measures and the odds of being in the different cognitive groups whereas multiple regression analyses explored the association between pathological measures and global cognition scores. No measure clearly distinguished the control and cognitive impairment groups. Comparing the cognitive impairment and dementia groups, synaptophysin and SV2 were reduced, whereas Braak stage, TDP-43 and hippocampal sclerosis frequency increased. Thal phase and VGLUT1 did not distinguish the cognitive impairment and dementia groups. All measures distinguished the dementia and control groups and all markers associated with the cognitive test scores. When all markers were analysed simultaneously, a reduction in synaptophysin, a high Braak stage and the presence of TDP-43 and hippocampal sclerosis associated with global cognitive function. These findings suggest that tangle pathology, hippocampal sclerosis, TDP-43 and perforant pathway synaptic loss are the major contributors to dementia in the oldest-old. Although an increase in plaque pathology and glutamatergic synaptic loss may be early events associated with cognitive impairment, we conclude that those with cognitive impairment, but no dementia, are indistinguishable from cognitively normal subjects based on the measures reported here. © The Author (2014).

We examined regional distribution patterns of phosphorylated 43-kDa TAr DNA-binding protein (pTDP-43) intraneuronal inclusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Immunohistochemistry was performed on 70 μm sections from FTLD-TDP autopsy cases (n = 39) presenting with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Two main types of cortical pTDP-43 pathology emerged, characterized by either predominantly perikaryal pTDP-43 inclusions (cytoplasmic type, cFTLD) or long aggregates in dendrites (neuritic type, nFTLD). Cortical involvement in nFTLD was extensive and frequently reached occipital areas, whereas cases with cFTLD often involved bulbar somatomotor neurons and the spinal cord. We observed four patterns indicative of potentially sequential dissemination of pTDP-43: cases with the lowest burden of pathology (pattern I) were characterized by widespread pTDP-43 lesions in the orbital gyri, gyrus rectus, and amygdala. With increasing burden of pathology (pattern II) pTDP-43 lesions emerged in the middle frontal and anterior cingulate gyrus as well as in anteromedial temporal lobe areas, the superior and medial temporal gyri, striatum, red nucleus, thalamus, and precerebellar nuclei. More advanced cases showed a third pattern (III) with involvement of the motor cortex, bulbar somatomotor neurons, and the spinal cord anterior horn, whereas cases with the highest burden of pathology (pattern IV) were characterized by pTDP-43 lesions in the visual cortex. We interpret the four neuropathological patterns in bvFTD to be consistent with the hypothesis that pTDP-43 pathology can spread sequentially and may propagate along axonal pathways.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are defined by the accumulation of abnormal protein deposits in the central nervous system (CNS), and only neuropathological examination enables a definitive diagnosis. Brain banks and their associated scientific programs have shaped the actual knowledge of NDs, identifying and characterizing the CNS deposits that define new diseases, formulating staging schemes, and establishing correlations between neuropathological changes and clinical features. However, brain banks have evolved to accommodate the banking of biofluids as well as DNA and RNA samples. Moreover, the value of biobanks is greatly enhanced if they link all the multidimensional clinical and laboratory information of each case, which is accomplished, optimally, using systematic and standardized operating procedures, and in the framework of multidisciplinary teams with the support of a flexible and user-friendly database system that facilitates the sharing of information of all the teams in the network. We describe a biobanking system that is a platform for discovery research at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Aggregation of TDP-43 proteins to form intracellular inclusions is the primary pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) with TDP-43 inclusions (FTLD-TDP). Histologically, in the cerebral cortex and limbic regions of affected ALS and FTLD-TDP patients, these pathologies occur as a variety of cytoplasmic, neuritic and intranuclear TDP-43 inclusions. In the spinal cord and lower brainstem of ALS patients, the lesions form cytoplasmic dashes or complex filamentous and spherical profiles in addition to skein-like inclusions (SLI). Ultrastructurally, the morphology of TDP-43 inclusions is heterogeneous but mainly composed of loose bundles of 10- to 20-nm-diameter straight filaments associated with electron-dense granular material. All of these TDP-43 inclusions are generally described as disordered amorphous aggregations unlike the amyloid fibrils that characterize protein accumulations in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. We here report that Thioflavin-S positive SLI are present in a subset of ALS cases, while TDP-43 inclusions outside the spinal cord lack the chemical properties of amyloid. Further, we examine the differential enrichment of fibrillar profiles in SLI of ALS cases by TDP-43 immuno-electron microscopy (immuno-EM). The demonstration that pathological TDP-43 can be amyloidogenic in situ suggests the following conclusions: (1) the conformational changes associated with TDP-43 aggregation are more complex than previously thought; (2) Thioflavin-S positive SLI may be composed primarily of filamentous ultrastructures.