Recent research diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer?s Disease require biomarker evaluation (as with neuroimaging and/or cerebrospinal fluid) of brain ? Amyloid plaques, Tau tangles, and Neurodegeneration (A/T/N), enabling detection of the presence (or absence) of AD neuropathology in living individuals, and allowing AD to be diagnosed and staged while intervention maybe be feasible. The proposed supplement seeks to acquire prospective PET and MRI data in accordance with the NIH-sponsored SCAN protocols to classify individuals using the A/T/N framework, specifically for minority participants in the Mount Sinai ADRC Clinical Cohort to enable examination of racial disparities in the prevalence of A/T/N biomarkers and their association with cognition and other factors. Acquisition of A/T/N profiles in minority cohorts are of particular significance because dementia of the Alzheimer?s type disproportionately impacts minority populations (particularly African American and Hispanic populations in the United States). Despite higher prevalence rates among minorities, they are less likely to receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer?s disease or are more likely to be diagnosed later in the disease than their comparable non-minority counterparts. The proposed supplement seeks to help fill this gap by providing data on a minority that can be widely distributed among the Alzheimer?s disease research community. The cohort maintained by the Mount Sinai Alzheimer?s Disease Research Center is well-suited to examine racial disparities in imaging biomarkers given that over 40% of the cohort is comprised of minority participants. The supplement aims will: 1) establish the SCAN acquisition and data transfer protocols at our site and validate the on-site scanner, 2) acquire the SCAN protocol on a minority cohort of 40 participants at Mount Sinai sufficient to characterize individuals using the A/T/N framework, and 3) examine whether low prevalence of amyloidosis among memory-impaired minority participants can be explained by higher prevalence of tauopathy, neurodegeneration, or vascular burden.
These aims have both practical and scientific significance and will result in data using the standardized SCAN protocol on an underserved population that can be widely shared and distributed to further Alzheimer?s disease research. Scientific significance will be achieved by comparing the data acquired through the supplement with non- minority participants characterized on SCAN-compatible protocols acquired with other resources to examine racial disparities in biomarker profiles.
Recent diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer?s require evidence, such as from neuroimaging, using a framework to measure brain ?Amyloid plaques, Tau tangles, and Neurodegeneration (A/T/N). Minority participants are more likely to be diagnosed later in Alzheimer?s disease or to have an atypical A/T/N presentation, despite higher prevalence of Alzheimer?s disease among minorities. This proposal will acquire prospective neuroimaging data using standardized protocols to characterize minority individuals using the A/T/N framework and provide data will to a centralized resource for wide sharing among the research community, thereby permitting the examination of racial disparities in the prevalence of A/T/N biomarkers and their association with cognition and other factors.
