Event Abstract

Sleep fragmentation is associated with brain tau but not amyloid-β burden in healthy older adults

  • 1 GIGA-Cyclotron Research Center In Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Belgium
  • 2 Zentrum für Chronobiologie, Universität Basel, Switzerland
  • 3 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Belgium
  • 4 Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Belgium, Belgium
  • 5 Physip S.A, France
  • 6 Department of Neurology, University Hopital of Liege, Belgium
  • 7 Department of Neurology, University Hospital Liège, Belgium
  • 8 GIGA-In silico Medicine, University of Liège, Belgium

INTRODUCTION – Arousal during sleep are transient shifts in EEG frequency lasting at least 3 seconds that are thought to reflect poorer sleep quality. Their impact on brain function and brain structure is however not established. In addition, accumulating evidence support a strong link between sleep-wake dysfunction and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including the abnormal accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau protein in the brain. Here we investigated whether arousals during sleep are associated with Aβ and Tau burden in healthy aging. METHODS – Fifty-four healthy and cognitively normal older individuals (aged 51-69; mean 59 ± 5; 36 females) were tested in this study. We recorded their night time sleep in the laboratory under EEG and assessed Aβ and tau protein burden during two Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, respectively with 18F-flutemetamol and 18F-THK 5351 radiotracers. Automatic sleep stage scoring and arousal detection was computed on all EEG recordings. RESULTS – Generalized linear mixed models analyses revealed that the number of arousals with a concomitant increase in EMG tone was significantly associated with whole-brain tau burden (p = .009), but not with whole-brain Aβ burden (p = .30), even when correcting for age, sex, education and total sleep time. Further analyses showed that sleep macrostructure parameters such as sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency were not significantly associated to whole-brain F18-THK 5351 or F18-flutemetamol intake values. CONCLUSION – These findings suggest that arousals during sleep are strongly linked to whole-brain AD pathophysiology, namely the accumulation of tau, but not Aβ. These results cast new light on the association between sleep and AD pathophysiology.

Acknowledgements

Support: FNRS,ULiège,ARC17/21-09,FEDER,WBI,Clerdent Foundation

Keywords: Sleep, Aging, Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology, arousals, Tau & phospho-Tau protein, Beta - amyloid protein

Conference: Belgian Brain Congress 2018 — Belgian Brain Council, LIEGE, Belgium, 19 Oct - 19 Oct, 2018.

Presentation Type: e-posters

Topic: NOVEL STRATEGIES FOR NEUROLOGICAL AND MENTAL DISORDERS: SCIENTIFIC BASIS AND VALUE FOR PATIENT-CENTERED CARE

Citation: Chylinski D, Rudzik F, Coppieters 'T Wallant D, Van Egroo M, Muto V, Narbutas J, Villar González P, Besson G, Lambot E, Laloux S, Hagelstein C, Ghaemmaghami P, Degueldre C, Berthomier C, Bethomier P, Brandewinder M, Schmidt C, Maquet P, Salmon E, Phillips C, Bahri M, Bastin C, Collette F and Vandewalle G (2019). Sleep fragmentation is associated with brain tau but not amyloid-β burden in healthy older adults. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Belgian Brain Congress 2018 — Belgian Brain Council. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2018.95.00054

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 20 Aug 2018; Published Online: 17 Jan 2019.

* Correspondence: Miss. Daphne Chylinski, GIGA-Cyclotron Research Center In Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Liège, Belgium, daphne.chylinski@uliege.be