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The Down syndrome brain in the presence and absence of fibrillar β-amyloidosis

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Annus, T 
Wilson, LR 
Acosta-Cabronero, J 
Cardenas-Blanco, A 
Hong, YT 

Abstract

People with Down syndrome (DS) have a neurodevelopmentally distinct brain and invariably developed amyloid neuropathology by age 50. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide a detailed account of DS brain morphology and the changes occuring with amyloid neuropathology. Forty-six adults with DS underwent structural and amyloid imaging-the latter using Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) to stratify the cohort into PIB-positive (n = 19) and PIB-negative (n = 27). Age-matched controls (n = 30) underwent structural imaging. Group differences in deep gray matter volumetry and cortical thickness were studied. PIB-negative people with DS have neurodevelopmentally atypical brain, characterized by disproportionately thicker frontal and occipitoparietal cortex and thinner motor cortex and temporal pole with larger putamina and smaller hippocampi than controls. In the presence of amyloid neuropathology, the DS brains demonstrated a strikingly similar pattern of posterior dominant cortical thinning and subcortical atrophy in the hippocampus, thalamus, and striatum, to that observed in non-DS Alzheimer's disease. Care must be taken to avoid underestimating amyloid-associated morphologic changes in DS due to disproportionate size of some subcortical structures and thickness of the cortex.

Description

Keywords

Alzheimer's disease, amyloid, cortical thickness, Down syndrome, gray matter volume

Journal Title

Neurobiology of Aging

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0197-4580
1558-1497

Volume Title

53

Publisher

Elsevier
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (G1002252)
Medical Research Council (G0600986)
Medical Research Council (MR/M009041/1)
Medical Research Council (MR/M024873/1)
Medical Research Council (G0600986/1)
MRC (G1002252/1)
This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number: 98480 ). Additional support was received from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the NIHR Collaborations in Leadership for Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for the East of England, the NIHR Cambridge Dementia Biomedical Research Unit, the Down Syndrome Association and the Health Foundation.