Profound degeneration of wake-promoting neurons in Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Sleep-wake disturbances are a common and early feature in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The impact of early tau pathology in wake-promoting neurons (WPNs) remains unclear.

Methods

We performed stereology in postmortem brains from AD individuals and healthy controls to identify quantitative differences in morphological metrics in WPNs. Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration were included as disease-specific controls.

Results

The three nuclei studied accumulate considerable amounts of tau inclusions and showed a decrease in neurotransmitter-synthetizing neurons in AD, PSP, and corticobasal degeneration. However, substantial neuronal loss was exclusively found in AD.

Discussion

WPNs are extremely vulnerable to AD but not to 4 r

SUBMITTER: Oh J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6801040 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature