Sektion für Demenzforschung | Universitätsklinikum Tübingen

Section for Dementia Research

The Dementia Research Section is located in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research. There is close cooperation in terms of personnel and content with the Memory Clinic of the Geriatric Center at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. In the section for dementia research, patients with different degrees of severity of memory disorders are examined and treated multimodally.

An important research goal is the development of innovative diagnostic tools for the early detection of cognitive disorders such as tablet-based tests, blood tests, olfactory testing, color vision testing, gait testing and high-field MRI. A current project is studying the gut microbiome in Alzheimer's patients and healthy controls. In addition, various clinical and pharmacological studies are being conducted, such as the DIAN study, the DELCODE study, the AlzBiom study, etc.

Contact

Secretariat:
Silvia Klein

+49 7071 29-87126

07071 29-25097

E-mail address: silvia.klein@med.uni-tuebingen.de

Management:

frontend.sr-only_#{element.contextual_1.children.icon}: Prof. Dr. Christoph Laske

frontend.sr-only_#{element.contextual_1.children.icon}: +49 7071 29-83444

E-mail address: christoph.laske@med.uni-tuebingen.de

Current research projects

AlzBiom study
The human intestinal flora - the intestinal microbiome - is increasingly becoming the focus of attention in diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. Initial indications suggest that the gut microbiome could also play an important role in Alzheimer's disease. The AlzBiom study will investigate whether similarities or differences in the intestinal flora can be found between healthy people and people with memory impairment or dementia. The research results could provide clues for new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Interested in participating in the study?

The scientific background of this study is to use high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate whether characteristic fine-structural changes such as protein deposits (so-called amyloid plaques) can be detected in the brains of Alzheimer's patients compared to healthy controls. A special feature of the device used here is its unusually high magnetic field strength (9.4 Tesla). This makes it possible, for example, to precisely image the various cortical layers of the brain, which would not be possible with a commonly used MRI device with a lower field strength (e.g. 1.5 or 3 Tesla).

A dominant symptom of Alzheimer's disease is the increasing impairment of memory and other cognitive functions. However, limitations in mental performance can also occur in the context of other diseases (e.g. depression) or be signs of the natural aging process. Therefore, it is of particular importance to find reliable indicators that provide early indications of the presence of Alzheimer's disease. Motor functions play an important role here. To this end, we investigate movement kinematics during handwriting and drawing tasks in patients in different stages of Alzheimer's disease and compare them with healthy control subjects. The drawings are digitized and evaluated with a tablet and thus allow statements about the quality, degree of automation and accuracy of handwriting movements and drawing skills. Typical patterns of results can provide indications of the presence of dementia.

For many decades, the biomarkers amyloid-ß 1-42, total tau and phospho-tau have been determined in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) when Alzheimer's disease is suspected. A decreased amyloid-ß value and increased tau / phospho-tau values in the CSF are indicative of Alzheimer's pathology. In addition to these markers, there are other biomarkers in the CSF such as neurofilament, which is an important component of the cytoskeleton of neurons (especially axons). Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a component of neurofilament, NfL is released upon axonal damage and neurodegeneration. NfL can be determined in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for many years, whereas the determination of NfL in blood at much lower concentrations (blood compartment) has only recently become possible, thanks to modern technologies (e.g. single molecule array = Simoa platform). Our research group (led by Prof. Dr. Mathias Jucker) is engaged in the investigation of NfL in blood (animal model and also human model). The aim is to research and establish new, innovative biomarkers in the blood in addition to the above mentioned CSF biomarkers (Aß and Tau), which can be used e.g. in therapy studies of Alzheimer's dementia.

Selected publications

Wolfsgruber S, Kleineidam L, Guski J, Polcher A, Frommann I, Roeske S, Spruth EJ, Franke C, Priller J, Kilimann I, Teipel S, Buerger K, Janowitz D, Laske C, Buchmann M, Peters O, Menne F, Fuentes Casan M, Wiltfang J, Bartels C, Düzel E, Metzger C, Glanz W, Thelen M, Spottke A, Ramirez A, Kofler B, Fließbach K, Schneider A, Heneka MT, Brosseron F, Meiberth D, Jessen F, Wagner M; DELCODE Study Group. Minor neuropsychological deficits in patients with subjective cognitive decline. Neurology. 2020 Sep 1;95(9):e1134-e1143. doi: 10.1212/WNL.00000000010142. epub 2020 Jul 7. PMID: 32636322.
Barthélemy NR, Li Y, Joseph-Mathurin N, Gordon BA, Hassenstab J, Benzinger TLS, Buckles V, Fagan AM, Perrin RJ, Goate AM, Morris JC, Karch CM, Xiong C, Allegri R, Mendez PC, Berman SB, Ikeuchi T, Mori H, Shimada H, Shoji M, Suzuki K, Noble J, Farlow M, Chhatwal J, Graff-Radford NR, Salloway S, Schofield PR, Masters CL, Martins RN, O'Connor A, Fox NC, Levin J, Jucker M, Gabelle A, Lehmann S, Sato C, Bateman RJ, McDade E; Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network. A soluble phosphorylated tau signature links tau, amyloid and the evolution of stages of dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease. Nat Med. 2020 Mar;26(3):398-407. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0781-z. Epub 2020 Mar 11. PMID: 32161412.
Tuzzi E, Balla DZ, Loureiro JRA, Neumann M, Laske C, Pohmann R, Preische O, Scheffler K, Hagberg GE. Ultra-High Field MRI in Alzheimer's Disease: Effective Transverse Relaxation Rate and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping of Human Brain In Vivo and Ex Vivo compared to Histology. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;73(4):1481-1499. doi: 10.3233/JAD-190424. PMID: 31958079.
Preische O, Schultz SA, Apel A, Kuhle J, Kaeser SA, Barro C, Gräber S, Kuder-Buletta E, LaFougere C, Laske C, Voe.glein J, Levin J, Masters CL, Martins R, Schofield PR, Rossor MN, Graff-Radford NR, Salloway S, Ghetti B, Ringman JM, Noble JM, Chhatwal J, Goate AM, Benzinger TLS, Morris JC, Bateman RJ, Wang G, Fagan AM, McDade EM, Gordon BA, Jucker M; Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network. Serum neurofilament dynamics predicts neurodegeneration and clinical progression in presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease. Nat Med 2019; 25(2):277-283. doi: 10.1038/s41591-018-0304-3. epub 2019 Jan 21.
Müller S, Herde L, Preische O, Zeller A, Heymann P, Robens S, Elbing U, Laske C. Diagnostic value of digital clock drawing test in comparison with CERAD neuropsychological battery total score for discrimination of patients in the early course of Alzheimer's disease from healthy individuals. Sci Rep 2019; 9(1):3543. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40010-0.
Stoynova N, Laske C, Plewnia C. Combining electrical stimulation and cognitive control training to reduce concerns about subjective cognitive decline. Brain Stimul 2019; 12(4):1083-1085. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2019.04.008.