CAN BLOOD BIOMARKERS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE BE PREDICTORS OF FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY OF THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK IN PATIENTS WITH MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND SUBJECTIVE COGNITIVE DECLINE?

• Grant number: 24/06758-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Marcio Luiz Figueredo Balthazar
• Grantee: Gabriela Barbosa Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/15571-7 - Mapping the progression of subjective cognitive decline to mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer´s disease dementia with multimodal biomarkers, AP.JP2

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently the leading cause of dementia in the elderly population, with increasing numbers of diagnoses around the world, causing great suffering to the patients. In addition to AD, many patients may have early forms of the condition, with significant loss of cognition and memory, such as subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), both of which carry a high risk of progressing to actual AD. The process of illness involves, among other factors, changes in the pattern of brain connectivity in cortical areas of the encephalon, especially the default mode network (DMN), which is responsible for processing the internal flow of thoughts, constructing the self, consolidating memories and projecting the future during states of rest. This change can be identified through neuroimaging tests and, due to recent advances in the field, through the use of blood biomarkers, allowing the pathophysiological investigation of this process to be made more accessible and opening doors for progress in the early diagnosis of the initial forms of AD and its evolution. With these factors in mind, the current project aims to study the predictive value of plasma markers in the involvement of patients with SCD, MCI, and controls by abnormal connectivity patterns in DMN identified from functional magnetic resonance imaging.