White matter microstructure is differentially impacted by cerebral amyloid angiopathy, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plaque co-pathology.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

White matter (WM) is affected by and serves as a pathway to neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) propagation in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) associates with neuritic plaques (NPs) to exacerbate NFT accumulation. We aim to study how these co-pathologies affect WM integrity.

Methods

We performed a cross-sectional study of ante mortem diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data according to participants' post mortem NFT, NP, and CAA neuropathology, from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center dataset.

Results

We found asymmetric DTI changes in several WM regions between Braak NFT stages II and IV and V/VI, and across CAA pathological burden, with increased mean, radial, and axial diffusivities. CAA-NFT co-pathology effects were observed m

SUBMITTER: Santos A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12519507 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature