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Higher soluble platelet-derived Growth Factor Receptor-beta – a significant Predictor of Cognitive impairment even after controlling for Amyloid-beta or Tau in multiple types of Dementia

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Researchers studied brain capillary damage [blood–brain barrier (BBB) breakdown] using 

• a novel cerebrospinal fluid biomarker of BBB-associated capillary mural cell pericyte, soluble platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β
• regional BBB permeability using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Results: early cognitive dysfunction develop brain capillary damage and BBB breakdown in the hippocampus irrespective of Alzheimer’s Aβ and/or tau biomarker changes, suggesting that BBB breakdown is an early biomarker of human cognitive dysfunction independent of Aβ and tau.

Multiple Types of Dementia:

• vascular dementia,
• vascular cognitive impairment,
• Parkinson’s disease,
• Lewy body dementia,
• frontotemporal dementia, or
• other disorders that might account for cognitive impairment.

In a subset of 73 patients who had gadolinium-based contrast MRI, soluble platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta was positively correlated with blood-brain barrier breakdown, limited to the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe structures.

“These brain regions show the earliest pathology in Alzheimer’s disease and are associated with memory deficits,” observed Gwenn Smith, PhD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who was not part of the research. “These promising results support further investigation of CSF and MRI measures of blood-brain barrier breakdown as an early pathological event associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” she told MedPage Today.

The findings represent only one point in time, the researchers cautioned. Future studies will look at how soon cognitive decline occurs after blood vessel damage starts.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/dementia/77414?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2019-01-15&eun=g99985d0r&pos=&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%202019-01-15&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_Active