2024 New Investigator Awards Program (NIAP)
In Vivo Quantification of Entorhinal Cortex Layer II Along the AD Continuum
Can advanced magnetic resonance imaging detect subtle changes in brain structure to help predict Alzheimer’s disease?
Yuto Uchida, M.D., Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD - United States
Background
Because Alzheimer’s is a progressive disorder, scientists have been studying ways of detecting the disease at an early stage, when treatments can be most effective. Their work has led to novel brain scan technology, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), which can measure brain levels of beta-amyloid and tau – protein molecules known to accumulate into hallmark plaques and tangles, respectively, in Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studies, moreover, suggest that early-stage neurodegeneration (structural brain damage) should also be scanned as part of an optimal diagnostic procedure for Alzheimer’s. Measuring such damage on brain scans, however, has been difficult, as older MRI and PET techniques cannot visualize these subtle changes with sufficient clarity.
In preliminary studies, Dr. Yuto Uchida and colleagues have been testing whether newly-developed MRI methods can identify subtle neurodegeneration in the brain. Their techniques include MRI scanners with improved resolution, as well as deep susceptibility tensor imaging (DeepSTI), an advanced computer science method for detecting patterns of change in the brain. They found that the MRI scanners could accurately visualize neurodegeneration in brain samples from people who did or did not have Alzheimer’s. They also found that by combining MRI scanner technology with DeepSTI, they could measure neurodegeneration in the entorhinal cortex (a brain region affected early in Alzheimer’s) in the brains of living people.
Research Plan
Dr. Uchida and team will now conduct a larger study of their novel MRI technologies. First, they will scan brain samples of people at varying stages of early Alzheimer’s, and then analyze the scans to determine how early neurodegeneration in the entorhinal cortex develops and progresses. Next, to verify and expand on these findings, they will conduct a similar study with living participants who do or do not have early Alzheimer’s.
Impact
Dr. Uchida’s project could shed new light on the progression of structural brain damage in early Alzheimer’s. It could also lead to an improved method of diagnosing the disease in humans.
The New Investigator Program Award (NIAP) is jointly funded by the Alzheimer's Association and National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center.