Preliminary evidence for preserved synaptic density in late-life depression

Autor: Thomas Vande Casteele, Maarten Laroy, Margot Van Cauwenberge, Michel Koole, Patrick Dupont, Stefan Sunaert, Jan Van den Stock, Filip Bouckaert, Koen Van Laere, Louise Emsell, Mathieu Vandenbulcke
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Translational Psychiatry, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2158-3188
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02837-8
Popis: Abstract Late-life depression has been consistently associated with lower gray matter volume, the origin of which remains largely unexplained. Recent in-vivo PET findings in early-onset depression and Alzheimer’s Disease suggest that synaptic deficits contribute to the pathophysiology of these disorders and may therefore contribute to lower gray matter volume in late-life depression. Here, we investigate synaptic density in vivo for the first time in late-life depression using the synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A receptor radioligand 11C-UCB-J. We included 24 currently depressed adults with late-life depression (73.0 ± 6.2 years, 16 female, geriatric depression scale = 19.5 ± 6.8) and 36 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (70.4 ± 6.2 years, 21 female, geriatric depression scale = 2.7 ± 2.9) that underwent simultaneous 11C-UCB-J positron emission tomography (PET) and 3D T1- and T2-FLAIR weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging on a 3-tesla PET-MR scanner. We used analyses of variance to test for 11C-UCB-J binding and gray matter volumes differences in regions implicated in depression. The late-life depression group showed a trend in lower gray matter volumes in the hippocampus (p = 0.04), mesial temporal (p = 0.02) and prefrontal cortex (p = 0.02) compared to healthy control group without surviving correction for multiple comparison. However, no group differences in 11C-UCB-J binding were found in these regions nor were any associations between 11C-UCB-J and depressive symptoms. Our data suggests that, in contrast to Alzheimer’s Disease, lower gray matter volume in late-life depression is not associated with synaptic density changes. From a therapeutic standpoint, preserved synaptic density in late-life depression may be an encouraging finding.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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