Tag: Konstantinos Poulakis

Multi-cohort and longitudinal Bayesian clustering study of stage and subtype in Alzheimer’s disease published in Nature Communications

Comparison of cluster-specific covariance matrixes with node strength. (Image by the Authors.)
Multi-cohort and longitudinal Bayesian clustering study of stage and subtype in Alzheimer’s disease
Konstantinos Poulakis, Joana B. Pereira, J.-Sebastian Muehlboeck, Lars-Olof Wahlund, Örjan Smedby, Giovanni Volpe, Colin L. Masters, David Ames, Yoshiki Niimi, Takeshi Iwatsubo, Daniel Ferreira, Eric Westman, Japanese Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative & Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle study
Nature Communications 13, 4566 (2022)
doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32202-6

Understanding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) heterogeneity is important for understanding the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of AD. However, AD atrophy subtypes may reflect different disease stages or biologically distinct subtypes. Here we use longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging data (891 participants with AD dementia, 305 healthy control participants) from four international cohorts, and longitudinal clustering to estimate differential atrophy trajectories from the age of clinical disease onset. Our findings (in amyloid-β positive AD patients) show five distinct longitudinal patterns of atrophy with different demographical and cognitive characteristics. Some previously reported atrophy subtypes may reflect disease stages rather than distinct subtypes. The heterogeneity in atrophy rates and cognitive decline within the five longitudinal atrophy patterns, potentially expresses a complex combination of protective/risk factors and concomitant non-AD pathologies. By alternating between the cross-sectional and longitudinal understanding of AD subtypes these analyses may allow better understanding of disease heterogeneity.

Unraveling Parkinson’s disease heterogeneity using subtypes based on multimodal data published in Parkinsonism and Related Disorders

Particular of the brain in the group comparison analysis. (Image by the Authors.)
Unraveling Parkinson’s disease heterogeneity using subtypes based on multimodal data
Franziska Albrecht, Konstantinos Poulakis, Malin Freidle, Hanna Johansson, Urban Ekman, Giovanni Volpe, Eric Westman, Joana B. Pereira, Erika Franzén
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders 102, 19-29 (2022)
doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2022.07.014

Background

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a clinically and neuroanatomically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease characterized by different subtypes. To this date, no studies have used multimodal data that combines clinical, motor, cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to identify these subtypes, which may provide complementary, clinically relevant information. To address this limitation, we subtyped participants with mild-moderate PD based on a rich, multimodal dataset of clinical, cognitive, motor, and neuroimaging variables.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from 95 PD participants from our randomized EXPANd (EXercise in PArkinson’s disease and Neuroplasticity) controlled trial were included. Participants were subtyped using clinical, motor, and cognitive assessments as well as structural and resting-state MRI data. Subtyping was done by random forest clustering. We extracted information about the subtypes by inspecting their neuroimaging profiles and descriptive statistics.

Results

Our multimodal subtyping analysis yielded three PD subtypes: a motor-cognitive subtype characterized by widespread alterations in brain structure and function as well as impairment in motor and cognitive abilities; a cognitive dominant subtype mainly impaired in cognitive function that showed frontoparietal structural and functional changes; and a motor dominant subtype impaired in motor variables without any brain alterations. Motor variables were most important for the subtyping, followed by gray matter volume in the right medial postcentral gyrus.

Conclusions

Three distinct PD subtypes were identified in our multimodal dataset. The most important features to subtype PD participants were motor variables in addition to structural MRI in the sensorimotor region. These findings have the potential to improve our understanding of PD heterogeneity, which in turn can lead to personalized interventions and rehabilitation.