The work carried out during the MSCA fellowship mainly focused on the analysis of retinal thickness measurements quantified by OCT and their interaction with neuropsychological scores, progression of cognitive decline to MCI and brain amyloid uptake by PET-FBB.
First, we analyzed data from 129 participants of the FACEHBI cohort with OCT and PET-FBB at baseline and the 2y follow-up visit. Our data indicated that those SCD individuals who had increased thickness in a particular part of the retina (the inner macula) at the baseline evaluation had a higher probability of presenting with a positive PET-FBB scan both at baseline and after 2y. On the contrary, no retinal thickness measures correlated with neuropsychological scores at baseline or predicted conversion to Mild Cognitive Impairment after 2y (Marquié et al., Alzheimers Res Ther, 2020, accepted for publication).
In a cohort of almost 1000 individuals evaluated at Fundació ACE Memory Clinic, we did not detect significant differences on thickness and volume from two different regions of the retina (disk and macula) among individuals with SCD, amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer (Sánchez et al. Sci Rep 2018; Sánchez et al. Sci Rep 2020).
We additionally analyzed visual function in a cohort of elderly individuals with SCD (including the FACEHBI cohort), MCI and dementia, and found that those with dementia, compared with the SCD and MCI groups, presented worse visual acuity, used less visual correction and fewer ophthalmological treatments and underwent fewer ocular surgeries. OCT image quality worsened in parallel to cognitive decline, while no group differences in past ophthalmological disorders or abnormal OCT findings were detected (Marquié et al. Sci Rep 2019).
Regarding the exploitation and dissemination of the data, the results derived from the IPACBIS project were highlighted in the host institution’s webpage as well as its social media accounts. The fellow has presented the research results at different scientific meetings (Poster at the 13th Human Amyloid Imaging meeting in Miami, FL on Jan 2019; Oral communication at the Workshop on Brain Imaging in Barcelona on May 2019; Poster at the 14th Human Amyloid Imaging meeting in Miami, FL on Jan 2020) and attended several conference for training in Alzheimer´s biomarkers and OCT. No website has been developed for the project.
Three research articles derived from the IPACBIS project have been published in peer-reviewed journals so far (Marquié et al. Visual impairment in aging and cognitive decline: experience in a Memory Clinic. Sci Rep. 2019 Jun 18;9(1):8698, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-45055-9; and Sanchez et al., Evaluation of macular thickness and volume tested by optical coherence tomography as biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in a memory clínic. Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 31;10(1):1580, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58399-4; M Marquié et al. Association between retinal thickness and β-amyloid brain accumulation in individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline: Fundació ACE Healthy Brain Initiative,Alzheimers Res Ther 2020 Mar 31;12(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s13195-020-00602-9).
Regarding communication of the IPACBIS project’s results to society, the fellow has participated in multiple activities such as talks in a library, a seminar for retired high school teachers, a seminar for primary care physicians and a lecture for 5th year medical students, among others. Furthermore, the Communication Department at Fundació ACE, the host institution, has posted several articles highlighting the MSCA fellowship and the published papers in multiple Spanish online general media.
