Atrophy of Basal Forebrain Initiates with Tau Pathology in Individuals at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease.

ABSTRACT: Evidence suggests that the basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic system degenerates early in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), likely due to the vulnerability of BF cholinergic neurons to tau pathology. However, it remains unclear whether the presence of tauopathy is the only requirement for initiating the BF degeneration in asymptomatic subjects at risk for AD (AR-AD), and how BF structural deficits evolve from normal aging to preclinical and prodromal AD. Here, we provide human in vivo magnetic resonance imaging evidence supporting that abnormal cerebrospinal fluid levels of phosphorylated tau (T+) are selectively associated with bilateral volume loss of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (nbM, Ch4) in AR-AD individuals. Spreading of atrophy to medial septum and vertical limb of diagonal ba

SUBMITTER: Cantero JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8493660 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature