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hand, DNA is extracted from blood cells to deter- 4.3.8. Neuroimaging studies
mine, by PCR and sequencing techniques, genetic
markers associated with the various polymorphisms Knowing the morphological variations occurring in
of the following genes: APOE, CR1, BIN1, CLU, PI- brain structure throughout life is essential to assess
CALM, ABCA7, SORL1, PRNP, GRM8, BACE1. the corresponding pathological changes that occur
in neurodegenerative diseases. In this context, neu-
Furthermore, the blood samples collected and deri- roimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance
vatives are used to determine a number of bioche- imaging (MRI) have led to significant progress in un-
mical markers among which the following are of derstanding brain changes associated with age.
special interest:
• Vascular damage markers, cytokines and MRI is a noninvasive tool that allows the study of nor-
chemokines involved in human lipid mal aging individuals at different moments of his life.
metabolism and proinflammatory. However, conventional MRI techniques are unable
to detect and quantify age-dependent microstruc-
• The following molecules:: MMP-9, Serpin tural changes who have been described in post-
E1/PAI-1, E-Selectin, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, IL-1 mortem studies of brain tissue. Accordingly, the
beta, IL-6, CXCL8/IL-8, CCL2/MCP-1, TNF- project aims to conduct a series of studies based on
alpha, Adiponectin/Acrp30, CRP, P-Selectin y various MRI modern techniques that can provide vo-
MMP-3. lumetric quantitative indexes of the morphological
changes.
The utility of these biomarkers complements the in-
formation derived from the study of genetic risk mar- In this regard VBM (voxel-based morphometry tech-
kers mentioned above and can define risk factors niques), based on creating statistical comparisons of
made evident in previous studies. gray and white matter patterns are the method of
choice in research. The discriminatory power of vo-
Samples collected and processed to date are sum- lumetry in degenerative pathologies such as Alzhei-
marized in the table below: mer's disease (volumetric reduction in amygdala,
hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, etc..) decreases if
First visit 1.169 age-dependent morphological changes are not
Second visit 851 well established in control samples, so that it is critical
to have large, well quantified samples.
Third visit 822 • Structural Study (3D volumetry, T2 and FLAIR)
Fourth visit 456 Determining the progressive loss of brain
Fifth visit volume during aging, especially in white
Total 5 matter provides volumetric quantitative
3.390 indexes of the morphological aging-
associated changes. In this sense, the VBM
(Voxel-Based Morphometry) techniques,
based on creating statistical comparisons of
gray and white matter patterns constitute the
method of choice, and allows us to
CIEN Foundation Annual Report 2015 / 80
