In Vivo Proton MRS Changes in Geriatric Rhesus Monkey Brain: Similarities to Human Alzheimer's Disease

RoseAnn Blenman-Abange¹, Richard Baumgartner², Marie Holahan¹, Jacquelynn Cook¹, Richard Hargreaves¹, Donald Williams¹

Proton MRS in the posterior cingulate of geriatric (≥24 years) Rhesus monkeys revealed decreased NAA/tCr, tCho/tCr and Glu/tCr and increased mI/tCr as compared to young adult monkeys (≤15 years). Since geriatric Rhesus have been shown to have brain and behavioral abnormalities similar to AD patients, our hypothesis was that they would have altered biochemical profiles similar to those observed in human AD. Results also showed that NAA/tCr, mI/tCr, tCho/tCr and Glu/tCr are highly correlated with age and that a panel of these 4 human AD biomarkers could be used to classify the young versus geriatrics with 99% accuracy.