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SeminarPast EventNeuroscience

Multimorbidity in the ageing human brain: lessons from neuropathological assessment

Kirsty McAleese

Dr

Newcastle University

Schedule
Tuesday, June 8, 2021

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Schedule

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

1:00 PM Europe/London

Host: Bristol Neuroscience

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Meeting Password

486693

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Event Information

Domain

Neuroscience

Original Event

View source

Host

Bristol Neuroscience

Duration

70 minutes

Abstract

Age-associated dementias are neuropathologically characterized by the identification of hallmark intracellular and extracellular deposition of proteins, i.e., hyperphosphorylated-tau, amyloid-β, and α-synuclein, or cerebrovascular lesions. The neuropathological assessment and staging of these pathologies allows for a diagnosis of a distinct disease, e.g., amyloid-β plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease. Neuropathological assessment in large scale cohorts, such as the UK’s Brains for Dementia Research (BDR) programme, has made it increasingly clear that the ageing brain is characterized by the presence of multiple age-associated pathologies rather than just the ‘pure’ hallmark lesion as commonly perceived. These additional pathologies can range from low/intermediate levels, that are assumed to have little if any clinical significance, to a full-blown mixed disease where there is the presence of two distinct diseases. In our recent paper (McAleese et al. 2021 Concomitant neurodegenerative pathologies contribute to the transition from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12291, Alzheimer's & Dementia), using the BDR cohort, we investigated the frequency of multimorbidity and specifically investigated the impact of additional low-level pathology on cognition. In this study, of 670 donated post-mortem brains, we found that almost 70% of cases exhibited multimorbidity and only 22% were considered a pure diagnosis. Importantly, no case of Lewy Body dementia or vascular dementia was considered pure. A key finding is that the presence of low levels of additional pathology increased the likelihood of having mild dementia vs mild cognitive impairment by almost 20-fold, indicating low levels of additional pathology do impact the clinical progression of a distinct disease. Given the high prevalence and the potential clinical impact, cerebral multimorbidity should be at the forefront of consideration in dementia research.

Topics

ageingageing brainamyloid-βcerebrovascular lesionscognitiondementiahyperphosphorylated-taumultimorbidityneuropathological assessmentneuropathologyα-synuclein

About the Speaker

Kirsty McAleese

Dr

Newcastle University

Contact & Resources

Personal Website

www.bristol.ac.uk/neuroscience/events/2021/bnwebinar-8jun.html

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