2023 Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship (AARF)
AD Pathology Across Cognition, Mood, and Behavior: More Than Worried Well?
How may complaints about memory and mood reflect disease-related changes in Alzheimer’s?
Catherine Munro, Ph.D.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc.
Boston, MA - United States
Background
Because Alzheimer’s is a progressive disorder, scientists are looking for better ways to detect and diagnose it at an early stage, before memory loss and other cognitive changes become evident. Studies have found that individuals who self-report complaints about their cognitive health (including memory) or behavioral health (including anxiety or depressed mood) may be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s in the future. Such complaints may be part of the earliest phase of Alzheimer’s; therefore , researchers are studying them in greater detail in clinical trials.
For example, scientists are examining the discrepancies between (1) complaints reported by the participant at a clinical trial and (2) those reported by the individual’s “study partner” (usually an intimate friend or loved one). Study partners often notice cognitive or behavioral symptoms that are missed by the individual, and their report may indicate an individuals risk for dementia more accurately than the participant’s self-report. A better understanding of how self-reported and study-partner-reported symptoms differ in clinical trials will be necessary to develop optimal methods of using these reports to assess early-stage Alzheimer’s risk.
Research Plan
Dr. Catherine Munro and colleagues will study the self-reported and study-partner-reported cognitive and behavioral symptoms. They will recruit 150 older adults from several large studies of aging, as well their study partners. Participants and study partners will undertake cognitive and behavioral questionnaires, in part to determine whether the participants have (1) no cognitive impairment, (2) subjective cognitive decline (SCD, a condition involving self-reported memory complaints) or (3) mild cognitive impairment (MCI, a condition of mild memory loss that may precede dementia). In addition, Dr. Munro’s team will analyze individuals brain scans and blood tests to look for various Alzheimer’s -related changes, including abnormal levels of tau and beta-amyloid proteins, two hallmark brain changes in Alzheimer’s. Using results from these questionnaires and analyses, the researchers will compare how accurately self-reported and study-partner-reported complaints predict Alzheimer’s -related protein changes in participants with no cognitive impairment, SCD or MCI.
Impact
Dr. Munro’s study could help clarify the links between dementia risk and subjective memory and mood complaints. It could also lead to novel methods of diagnosing Alzheimer’s at its earliest stages.