Lecture Kiliaan Flashcards
mouse models for vascular factors in alzheimer’s disease
Are there treatments for AD?
There is no effective treatment yet
–> The focus lies on the early, asymptomatic phase, as treatment later on in the disease is not effective
What are the developmental stages of AD?
- Latent phase in which you have no cognitive decline yet and no neuropathology (amyloid), but a cerebrovascular imparement is alreadi visible
- Prodromal phase (ca. 5 years)
- disease (ca. 10 years)
What are the risk factors for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease
- Age
- midlife hypertension
- Atherosclerosis
- Midlife obesity
- Stroke
- Hypercholesterolemia
- APOE4 allel
- Diabetes type II
- Atrial fibrillation
- Homocysteine
- Low education
Lifestyle:
- Smoking
- Diet
- Physical inactivity
What is the nutritional status of Alzheimer patients?
Already in a very early stage of AD:
- Less vitamin A, B12, C, D and E
- Less omega 3 fatty acids EPA DHA
- lowered selenium uridine
What is mediterranean-style diet associated with?
INVERSLY proportional to:
- Development of frailty in community dwelling older adults
- Incidence of hip fracture in prospective European study
What is a mediterranean-style diet?
HIGH intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, UNSATURATED fatty acids from olive oil and Fish (DHA/EPA), whole grains, nuts, moderate wine
LOW intake of saturated fat, refined grains and red meat
Study in Spain: Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts to reduce incidence of major cardiovascular events in persons at high cardiovascular risk. What did it show?
People with Mediterranean diet people were less likely to die from cardiovascular diseases
New york city, study:
77 years of age
followed Mediterranean diet for 10 years.
Risk of developing MCI is lower in people adhering to mediterranean diet
Multi-ethnic community study in northern Manhattan New York 1393 cognitively normal participants (77 yrs), 275 developed MCI during follow-up of 4.5 yrs.
MCI : mild cognitive impairment
Nijmegen study research question and approach
Multi-factorial approach:
How does diet affect brain structure and function?
–> brain circulation (CBF) –> brain structure (white and grey matter) –> cognition
Alzheimer mice
induced Hypertension Obesity
induced stroke in mice
Multi-factorial way research
behavior
cognition
motor skills
muscle strength
animals are kept in digital ventilated cages (movement is measured in these cages)
MRI, PET scanning 11.7T:
- cerebral bloodflow
- neuroinflammation
- structural + functional connectivity
Postmortem analyses:
- biochemistry + immunohistochemistry lightssheet microscopy polarised light imaging
What were the investigated diets?
Fortasyn diet:
3.15% replaced by fish oil
DHA EPA
UMP
Choline
Phospholipids
B-vitamins
Antioxidants
Control diet:
5% fat
soy oil
coconut oil
corn oil
Dietary treatment in stroke
before:
- acclimatization (- 39)
- open field (-21)
- rotard
- grip test (-14)
- polar test
(-7) - Morris water maze
normal Mice (2-3 months old)
medial cerebral artery was occluded - transient ischemic stroke 30 min MCA occlusion
then:
stroke is performed
tMCAo Diet switch
Repeat:
- Open field
- MRI
- rotarod
- grip test
- pole test
- Ppi
- rotarod
- Open field ORT
- Grip test
- pole test
- MRI
Summary of measurements/experimental design for mice dietary treatment in stroke
- cognition + motor skill test
- Neuroimaging (PET, ASL, DTI, rsfMRI)
- Immunohistochemistry/ biochemistry
Cerebral bloodflow MRI Fortasyn vs control mice
day 7 and day 35 (even after one month there is very low blood flow in control diet), in mediterranean diet the cerebral bloodflow improved significantly after 7-35 days.
Diet restored CBF in right hippocampus at day 35 with mediterranean diet
Resting state fMRI functional connectivity
Control diet - less red squares, i.e. not so much connectivity)
Fortasyn diet - more red squares (more connectivity)
The mediterranean diet led to significantly more connectivity, especially between left and right motor cortex and more connectivity overall
(just one month of good diet!)
What are the results of the pole test?
Pole test: motor coordination
impact of diet on motor sklls after stroke
measure: rotation time –> fortasyn diet was significantly faster, i.e. mice on diet turn faster - improved motor coordination
uPET imaging of microglial activation
[18F]DPA-714 ligand for the 18 kDa translocatoprotein (TSPO), expressed by microglial cells & macrophages upon neuroinflammatory stimuli
-> VISUALIZE inflammation
control diet you see a lot of inflammation through activated microglia
in mediterranean diet you see less activated microglia, i.e. less inflammation
How can exercise impact be measured?
Impact of 1 week voluntary exercise on stroke recovery in male mice.
Design:
- Occlusion of tMCA (30 min), leading to stroke
- tMCAO (transient middle cerebral artery occlusion) ß most common stroke in humans
- C57BL/6J mice
Animals put in cagen with or without running wheel and activity is monitored
After a week, animals are put in scanner (Neuroimaging (UHF 11.7 T) and immunohistochemistry
Beeficial effects on : cognition, neurogenesis, inflammation, infarct volumes
Just after one week of exercise
velocity, distance and time in running wheel is measured
Digital ventilated cages
24-7 monitoring of frequency, speed duration turning
WHat and when to measure activity in mice for impact of 1-week voluntary exercise on stroke?
ACTIVITY: They usually are active during the night, so focus on night.
LATERALITY: going to left or right
without RW: preference to go to the left
with RW: no preference
RW vs no RW CBF levels?
CBF increased in animals who had access to RW