The Correlations between Postmortem Brain Pathologies and Cognitive Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease.

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Pathology
• Gerontology

Background:

• The 2012 National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) are widely used.
• Clinicopathological relevance of these criteria in the Chinese population remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between antemortem cognitive performance and postmortem neuropathological changes in Chinese aging and AD brains.
• To assess the validity of NIA-AA diagnostic criteria in a Chinese cohort.

Main Methods:

• Collected 52 human brains with antemortem cognitive data (Everyday Cognition - ECog) from the CAMS/PUMC Human Brain Bank.
• Evaluated neuropathological changes using the NIA-AA-based "ABC" score (Amyloid-beta, Braak stage, CERAD score).
• Analyzed clinicopathological relationships using correlation analysis and general linear models.

Main Results:

• The overall "ABC" score correlated significantly with global ECog scores (r=0.37, p=0.014) and most ECog domains.
• CERAD neuritic plaque scores (C score) strongly correlated with global ECog (r=0.40, p=0.007) and cognitive domains like memory (r=0.50, p=0.001) and language (r=0.45, p=0.002).
• Braak neurofibrillary tangle scores (B score) showed moderate correlation with memory (r=0.32, p=0.035), while Thal amyloid-beta scores (A score) did not significantly correlate with any ECog domain.

Conclusions:

• Confirmed the correlation between postmortem CERAD (C) and Braak (B) scores and cognitive performance in a Chinese brain bank sample.
• Found no significant correlation between postmortem amyloid-beta (A) scores and cognitive performance in this cohort.
• Highlights the importance of considering specific pathological markers in diverse populations for Alzheimer's disease research.