2013 Emerging Science Abstracts

The Emerging Science abstracts were presented at the 2013 AAN Annual Meeting. Abstracts qualify for Emerging Science presentations by having key aspects of research conducted after the October 15th abstract submission deadline and must be new and of sufficient scientific importance to warrant expedited presentation and publication. The Science Committee is committed to presenting the best neuroscientific research at the Annual Meeting; 12 abstracts were accepted for dual presentation and 9 were accepted as poster presentations. William Hu, MD, PhD; Kelly Watts, MS; Murray Grossman, MD, FAAN; Jonathan Glass; James Lah, MD; John Trojanowski, MD, PhD; Allan Levey, MD, PhD OBJECTIVE: To validate five previously identified CSF biomarkers for FTLD-TDP, and to report a novel, robust, stand-alone CSF biomarker for FTLD-TDP. BACKGROUND: There is currently no reliable way to predict the underlying FTLD pathology while the patients are still living, and an ante-mortem biomarker for one of the main FTLD subtypes (FTLD-TDP or FTLD-Tau) can significantly enhance the pathology-based FTLD diagnosis and clinical trials for FTLD-TDP and FTLD-Tau. DESIGN/METHODS: Two independent cohorts of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) were recruited independently from Emory University (Atlanta, GA) and University of Pennsylvania (Penn; Philadelphia, PA) to undergo CSF analysis. These include patients with high likelihood FTLD-TDP (FTD patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or FTD patients with mutations in PGRN or C9ORF72) and patients with high likelihood FTLD-Tau (FTD patients with progressive supranuclear palsy or FTD patients with mutations in MAPT). Levels of five CSF previously identified proteins were measured, along with levels of total Tau (t-Tau) and Tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-Tau181). RESULTS : 29 Emory patients and 40 Penn patients participated in the study, including 43 patients with high likelihood FTLD-TDP and 26 patients with high likelihood FTLD-Tau. Using the Emory cohort, we validated the group level differences in …