Korean Brain Aging Study for Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer's disease2 (KBASE2) (KBASE2)

The Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of AD (KBASE) is a comprehensive prospective cohort study launched at Seoul National University (SNU) in 2014 using similar methods to the North American AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). KBASE includes well-characterized participants with normal cognition (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD dementia. Clinical/cognitive and lifestyle data, multimodal neuroimaging (structural MRI, MR angiography, diffusion tensor imaging, and resting-state fMRI, as well as amyloid, tau and FDG-PET, and bio-specimens were longitudinally collected during the past five years.

The KBASE2, the second phase of the KBASE project, will focus on new data collection and integrative analysis of the rich structural, functional, and molecular neuroimaging data in relation to WGS and other -omics. Network analysis of disruption in brain connectivity in relation to clinical status and AD biomarker profiles in KBASE will be related back to the NIA AD Sequencing Project (ADSP) multi-ethnic dataset (N>20,000) results. Amyloid, tau, neurodegeneration, and cerebrovascular integrity (A/T/N/V) neuroimaging biomarkers will be investigated cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Findings will be contrasted with and validated in independent cohorts, including ADNI and the Indiana Memory and Aging Study (IMAS), which both have similar genetic and deep longitudinal endophenotype data. The overarching premise is that 1) development of precision medicine for ADRD requires systematic multi-modal biomarker collection in diverse cohorts during early at-risk stages of disease to identify diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets, and 2) sophisticated analytic strategies are required to address the complexity of multimodal data, heterogeneity, and diverse participant cohorts. Integrative longitudinal analysis of genetic and -omics networks with structural and functional brain networks in this Asian cohort will yield new targets related to A/T/N/V pathology and other pathways

In KBASE2 projects, the KBASE team at Seoul National University (SNU) and AD research team at Indiana University (ADNI Genetics Core, Indiana ADRC, IU Network Science Institute) will closely collaborate with the ADSP and its multi-institutional working groups, and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Southern California. Whole genome sequences (WGS) will be ADSP-harmonized by the NIA Genomic Center for AD (GCAD) and shared via NIAGADS (both UPenn). The Laboratory of Neuroimaging (LONI; USC) will support imaging and related data sharing.