scholarly journals The Effect of Depression on Serum VEGF Level in Alzheimer’s Disease

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
JaeHoon Jung ◽  
SoYeon Kim ◽  
KyungHee Yoon ◽  
YooSun Moon ◽  
Daeyoung Roh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Serum Levels ◽  
Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
Korean Version ◽  
Mini Mental Status Examination

Objective. Growing evidence suggests that angiogenesis might represent a new pathogenic mechanism involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Among angiogenic cytokines, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in AD patients have been evaluated, but the results are controversial among studies. We investigated serum levels of VEGF in AD patients with depression, AD patients without depression, and the controls, respectively. The aim of this study is to elucidate the relationship between VEGF, depression, and cognitive impairment in AD.Methods. The CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating), MMSE-KC (the Mini-Mental Status Examination-Korean version), and SGDS-K (the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form) were measured in the subjects. Serum VEGF levels were measured in 24 AD patients with depression, 25 AD patients without depression, and 26 controls, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit.Results. Serum VEGF levels in AD patients with depression were significantly higher than AD patients without depression or the control. A correlation was observed between VEGF and scores on SGDS-K, but no correlation was detected between VEGF and MMSE-KC scores.Conclusion. Serum VEGF levels in AD patients with depression were higher than those without depression. Depression might be associated with changes in serum levels of VEGF in AD patients.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Serum Endocan Levels and Depression in Alzheimer’s Disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyung Hee Yoon ◽  
So Yeon Kim ◽  
Yoo Sun Moon ◽  
Daeyoung Roh ◽  
Sang Kyu Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Korean Version ◽  
State Examination

Objectives. Growing evidence suggests that angiogenic vascular factors may be involved in the pathogenic mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and recently endocan has been proposed as an angiogenic biomarker. The aim of this study was to measure serum endocan levels according to the presence of depression in AD and to investigate the association among the serum endocan levels, cognitive function, and depression in these patients.Methods. Serum endocan levels were measured in 26 AD patients with depression, 29 AD patients without depression, and 29 healthy controls using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The Mini-Mental State Examination-Korean version (MMSE-KC) and the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (SGDS-K) were used to evaluate cognitive function and depressive symptoms, respectively.Results. Serum endocan levels were significantly lower in AD patients with depression than in AD patients without depression or healthy controls. Serum endocan levels were negatively correlated with SGDS-K scores but not with MMSE-KC scores in AD patients.Conclusions. This study suggests that serum endocan levels might be associated with depression in AD. Future studies are needed to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms or the role of endocan in AD with depression.

scholarly journals Value of Neuropsychological Tests to Identify Patients with Depressive Symptoms on the Alzheimer’s Disease Continuum

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 819-826
Author(s):  
Felix Menne ◽  
Carola Gertrud Schipke ◽  
Arne Klostermann ◽  
Manuel Fuentes-Casañ ◽  
Silka Dawn Freiesleben ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Neuropsychological Tests ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Csf Biomarkers

Background: Depressive symptoms often co-occur with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and can impact neuropsychological test results. In early stages of AD, disentangling cognitive impairments due to depression from those due to neurodegeneration often poses a challenge. Objective: We aimed to identify neuropsychological tests able to detect AD-typical pathology while taking into account varying degrees of depressive symptoms. Methods: A battery of neuropsychological tests (CERAD-NP) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were assessed, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers were obtained. After stratifying patients into CSF positive or negative and into low, moderate, or high GDS score groups, sensitivity and specificity and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated for each subtest. Results: 497 participants were included in the analyses. In patients with low GDS scores (≤10), the highest AUC (0.72) was achieved by Mini-Mental State Examination, followed by Constructional Praxis Recall and Wordlist Total Recall (AUC = 0.714, both). In patients with moderate (11–20) and high (≥21) GDS scores, Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B) revealed the highest AUCs with 0.77 and 0.82, respectively. Conclusion: Neuropsychological tests showing AD-typical pathology in participants with low GDS scores are in-line with previous results. In patients with higher GDS scores, TMT-B showed the best discrimination. This indicates the need to focus on executive function rather than on memory task results in depressed patients to explore a risk for AD.

scholarly journals Autophagy and mitophagy biomarkers are reduced in sera of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Castellazzi ◽  
Simone Patergnani ◽  
Mariapina Donadio ◽  
Carlotta Giorgi ◽  
Massimo Bonora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Serum Levels ◽  
Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
Cellular Processes

AbstractDementia is a neurocognitive disorder characterized by a progressive memory loss and impairment in cognitive and functional abilities. Autophagy and mitophagy are two important cellular processes by which the damaged intracellular components are degraded by lysosomes. To investigate the contribution of autophagy and mitophagy in degenerative diseases, we investigated the serum levels of specific autophagic markers (ATG5 protein) and mitophagic markers (Parkin protein) in a population of older patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Two hundred elderly (≥65 years) outpatients were included in the study: 40 (20 F and 20 M) with mild-moderate late onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD); 40 (20 F and 20 M) affected by vascular dementia (VAD); 40 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI); 40 (20 F and 20 M) with “mixed” dementia (MD); 40 subjects without signs of cognitive impairment were included as sex-matched controls. Our data indicated that, in serum samples, ATG5 and Parkin were both elevated in controls, and that VAD compared with AD, MCI and MD (all p < 0.01). Patients affected by AD, MD, and MCI showed significantly reduced circulating levels of both ATG5 and Parkin compared to healthy controls and VAD individuals, reflecting a significant down-regulation of autophagy and mitophagy pathways in these groups of patients. The measurement of serum levels of ATG5 and Parkin may represent an easily accessible diagnostic tool for the early monitoring of patients with cognitive decline.

scholarly journals Awareness of the COVID-19 Outbreak and Resultant Depressive Tendencies in Patients with Severe Alzheimer’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-541
Author(s):  
Akito Tsugawa ◽  
Shu Sakurai ◽  
Yuta Inagawa ◽  
Daisuke Hirose ◽  
Yoshitsugu Kaneko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Recognition Rate ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Geriatric Depression ◽  
Severe Dementia ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Current Events

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has substantially affected patients with dementia and their caregivers. However, we found not all Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients were afraid of COVID-19 infection. Therefore, we investigated the association between rate of awareness of COVID-19 and depressive tendency in AD. 126 consecutive outpatients with AD were enrolled in this study from May 25, on the day when the declaration of emergency was lifted in Japan, through June 30, 2020. In addition to routine psychological tests, the participants were asked the following two questions: “Do you know COVID-19?” and “Why are you wearing a face mask?”. Moderate to severe AD patients were found to have a low COVID-19 recognition rate and did not fully understand why they were wearing face masks. In addition, because they did not understand the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak, their Geriatric Depression Scale scores were also substantially lower. These results may appear to simply indicate that people with severe dementia are unaware of current events. However, these results provide insights into how to care for patients with dementia and how to allocate the time and support of our limited staff during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Differential Cognitive Deficits Between Patients with Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease and Patients with Early Stage Vascular Dementia

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S175-S175 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.H. Park ◽  
K. Kyung Min ◽  
J. Byoung Sun
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Vascular Dementia ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Word List ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
Korean Version

BackgroundThe study aims to examine whether cognitive deficits are different between patients with early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) and patients with early stage vascular dementia (VaD) using the Korean version of the CERAD neuropsychological battery (CERAD-K-N).MethodsPatients with early stage dementia, global Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5 or 1 were consecutively recruited among first visitors to a dementia clinic, 257 AD patients and 90 VaD patients completed the protocol of the Korean version of the CERAD clinical assessment battery. CERAD-K-N was administered for the comprehensive evaluation of the neuropsychological function.ResultsOf the total 347 participants, 257 (69.1%) were AD group (CDR 0.5 = 66.9%) and 90 (21.9%) were VaD group (CDR 0.5 = 40.0%). Patients with very mild AD showed poorer performances in Boston naming test (BNT) (P = 0.028), word list memory test (P < 0.001), word list recall test (P < 0.001) and word list recognition test (WLRcT) (P = 0.006) than very mild VaD after adjustment of T score of MMSE-KC. However, the performance of trail making A (TMA) was more impaired in VaD group than in AD group. The performance of WLRcT (P < 0.001) was the worst among neuropsychological tests within AD group, whereas TMA was performed worst within VaD group.ConclusionsPatients with early-stage AD have more cognitive deficits on memory and language while patients with early-stage VaD show worse cognitive function on attention/processing speed. In addition, as the first cognitive deficit, memory dysfunction comes in AD and deficit in attention/processing speed in VaD.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Validation of the Korean Quick Dementia Rating System (K-QDRS)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hui Jin Ryu ◽  
Yeonsil Moon ◽  
Minyoung Kim ◽  
Hee-Jin Kim ◽  
James E. Galvin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Short Form ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Clinical Practices ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
Mild Dementia ◽  
Korean Version ◽  
Pearson's R ◽  
Pearson’S R

Background: The Quick Dementia Rating System (QDRS) is a brief and rapid dementia staging tool that does not require a trained rater. Objective: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the validity, reliability, and diagnostic usefulness of the Korean version of the QDRS (K-QDRS). Methods: We collected a total of 411 subject-informant dyads including cognitively unimpaired (CU, n = 22), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 198), and dementia (n = 191). The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale, Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), Korean version of instrumental activity of daily living (K-IADL), Short Form of the Geriatric Depression Scale, Caregiver-Administered Neuropsychiatric Inventory (CGA-NPI), and detailed neuropsychological tests were administered as gold standards of dementia staging, cognition, function, mood, and behavior. Results: Internal consistency of the K-QDRS was excellent with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.933. Concurrent validity was also satisfactory, with the K-QDRS correlating highly with the CDR Sum of Boxes (Pearson’s r = 0.791), K-MMSE (Pearson’s r = –0.518), K-IADL (Pearson’s r = 0.727), and CGA-NPI (Pearson’s r = 0.700). The K-QDRS was highly correlated with the global CDR, K-IADL, and CGA-NPI. We suggested two types of comparisons (for initial diagnosis and for follow-up evaluation). The cutoff scores for follow-up were 1.0 for MCI, 3.5 for very mild dementia, 6.5 for mild dementia, and 11.0 for moderate dementia. Conclusion: The K-QDRS is a valid and reliable dementia rating questionnaire and can be used, briefly and rapidly, in various settings like clinical practices, longitudinal cohort studies, and community primary care.

scholarly journals Neurogranin and BACE1 in CSF as Potential Biomarkers Differentiating Depression with Cognitive Deficits from Early Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola G. Schipke ◽  
Ann De Vos ◽  
Manuel Fuentes ◽  
Dirk Jacobs ◽  
Eugeen Vanmechelen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Csf Biomarkers ◽  
Postsynaptic Protein ◽  
Depressive Symptom Severity ◽  
Early Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
T Tau

Background/Aims: Major depressive disorder (MDD) can cooccur with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or may cause memory problems independently of AD. Previous studies have suggested that the AD-related cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers tau and Aβ(1–42) could help discriminate between early AD and depression unrelated to AD. Moreover, the postsynaptic protein neurogranin and presynaptic BACE1 have increasingly gained attention as potential new AD biomarkers, but they have not yet been investigated concerning depression. Methods: Using ELISAs, we studied CSF neurogranin and BACE1 levels in patients with mild (n = 21) and moderate (n = 19) AD, as well as in MDD patients with (n = 20) and without (n = 20) cognitive deficits. The clinical examinations included analyses of t-tau, Aβ(1–42), and Aβ(1–40), besides neuropsychological tests and cranial magnetic resonance imaging. Depressive symptom severity was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Results: Along with classic AD biomarkers, neurogranin and BACE1 CSF levels differed between moderate AD and MDD (p ≤ 0.01). MDD associated with cognitive deficits was distinguished from mild AD through the CSF neurogranin/BACE1 ratio (p < 0.05), which was strongly correlated with GDS scores (ρ = –0.656; p < 0.01). Conclusion: The neurogranin/BACE1 ratio in CSF can distinguish between depression and AD among patients with similar cognitive deficits, along with the classic AD biomarkers. Further longitudinal studies are ongoing to identify which biomarkers have prognostic value.

Differences in Clinical Presentation of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia in Alzheimer’s Disease According to Sex and Education Level

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 711-719
Author(s):  
Kuo-Hsuan Chang ◽  
Chin-Chang Huang ◽  
Chiung-Mei Chen ◽  
Hsiu-Chuan Wu ◽  
Hung-Chou Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Education Level ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Mini Mental Status Examination ◽  
High Level ◽  
Behavioral And Psychological Symptoms

Background: The behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) seriously affect the quality of life of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their caregivers. Objective: We aimed to identify associations between demographic/genetic factors and clinical presentations of BPSD. Methods: In a cohort of 463 AD patients with BPSD, we retrospectively analyzed sex, education level, AD severity (assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating and Mini-Mental Status Examination), and BPSD severity (assessed using the Neuropsychiatry Inventory, NPI). Severe BPSD was defined as NPI ≥10 for 3 consecutive years. Results: Among patients with severe BPSD (NPI ≥10), we observed more female patients (62.96%) and a lower level of education (6.03±4.77 years) as compared to those with mild BPSD (NPI <10) (female: 51.09%, p = 0.007; education years: 7.91±4.93, p < 0.001). Females had a lower level of education (5.72±4.50 years) and higher scores for depression/dysphoria (1.22±2.05) compared with males (education: 8.96±4.89 years, p < 0.001; depression/dysphoria: 0.78±1.42, p = 0.047). Patients with a high level of education (defined as ≥12 years) had higher scores for appetite/eating (0.90±2.02) than did those without (0.69±1.79; p = 0.001). Genetic analysis showed similar total and subscale NPI scores between patients with and without APOE4 and with and without the GRN rs5848 genotype. Conclusion: Our findings indicate potential contributions of sex and education to the presentation of BPSD. Further study is warranted to provide models for tailoring therapeutic programs to individual AD patients according to these factors.

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