Ales Bartos

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · Department of Neurology (3. LF)

Background: A number of recent studies have shown that the intestinal microbiome, part of the brain-gut axis, is implicated in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis. An essential part of this axis, is the intestinal barrier and gastrointestinal disorders with intestinal barrier dysregulation appear to be linked to CNS demyelination, and hence...

Objectives This study presents results of our randomized clinical trial studying the effect of human probiotics on memory and psychological and physical measures following our study protocol registered at clinicaltrials.gov NCT05051501 and described in detail in our previous paper. Methods Community dwelling participants aged between 55 and 80 yea...

The Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (abbreviated from the initial letters as ALBA) consists of repeating a sentence of six words, performing and later recalling six gestures, and finally recall of the words of the original sentence. The ALBA educational video is freely available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyCuWc0-Gro. The innovative AL...

Citation: Wurst, Z.; Birčák Kuchtová, B.; Křemen, J.; Lahutsina, A.; Ibrahim, I.; Tintěra, J.; Bartoš, A.; Brabec, M.; Rai, T.; Zach, P.; et al. Basal Ganglia Compensatory White Matter Changes on DTI in Alzheimer's Disease. Cells 2023, 12, 1220. Abstract: The volume reduction of the gray matter structures in patients with Alzheimer's disease is oft...

Aim: Electronic memory assessment has been recently developed using the ALBAV test. The aim of the study was to find out its discriminant and concurrent validity and other characteristics. Methods: The ALBAV electronic tests were completed at home of the participants with computer assistance of a nearby person in some patients. The total ALBAV scor...

Background Gut microbiota may influence brain functions. Therefore, we prepared a study protocol for a double-blind, crossover, randomized clinical trial to determine the complex effects of human probiotics on memory, psychological, and biological measures in the elderly. Methods We selected eligible participants using an effective electronic ques...

Introduction While the role of physiotherapy as part of a comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation is indisputable, clear evidence concerning the effectiveness of different rehabilitation managements [interdisciplinary implementing the International Classification of Functioning, disability and health (ICF) vs. multidisciplinary model] and physiother...

Aim: A quick and easy electronic memory self-evaluation might be useful at home, at doctor's practice, for pre-screening in research and clinical trials and for other purposes. Such an option is lacking in the Czech Republic. Therefore the aim was to create such a platform. Methods: Based on an existing personal assessment with paper forms of the A...

In this paper, we present a spoken dialog system used for collecting data for future research in the field of dementia prediction from speech. The dialog system was used to collect the speech data of patients with mild cognitive deficits. The core task solved by the dialog system was the spoken description of the vivid shore picture for one minute....

Aim: There are no broad-scale data available on the presence of neurological symptoms in persons afflicted by COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Therefore, our goal was to establish the incidence, frequency and duration of new neurological symptoms present in the adult population in the Czech Republic in connection with the COVID-19 disease. Methods:...

We report a case of a 43-years old woman patient with presenile dementia with the finding of a microtubule-associated protein tau mutation (MAPT) exon 10 on chromosome 17, specifically mutation S305N. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were recognized early from 36 years of her age. In contrast to that, subjective complaints about memory and memory de...

The aim of this review is to inform clinical and laboratory workers about the most important pre-analytical and analytical aspects of neurofilament light chain (NfL) determination in bioIogical fluids. NfLs represent a promising nonspecific biomarker of neuronal and axonal damage that occurs in a variety of neurological diseases. Before introducing...

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visual scales of brain atrophy are important for differential diagnosis of dementias in routine clinical practice. Atrophy patterns in early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be different according to some studies. Objective: Our goal was to assess brain atrophy patterns in early- and late-...

Objectives: Psychometric properties of the Czech version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-CZ) have been evaluated only in patients with chronic insomnia, and thus, it is unclear whether PSQI-CZ is suitable for use in other clinical and nonclinical populations. This study was aimed at examining the validity and reliability of the PSQI-CZ...

Aims: The aim was to create a more challenging version of the Picture Naming and Immediate Recall test (PICNIR) to verify the difficulty of naming 20 strictly selected pictures by patients with cognitive impairments, to provide clear rules for the correct evaluation of their naming, and to specify the test administration rules. We refer to it as to...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with inflammatory demyelination and astroglial activation, with neuronal and axonal damage as the leading factors of disability. We aimed to perform a meta-analysis to determine changes in CSF levels of neuronal and glial biomarkers, including neurofilament light chain (NFL), total t...

Background Sleep is important for consolidating declarative memory. Hippocampus is considered an important structure in this process. Our goal was to assess relationship between sleep structure, memory and size of the hippocampus. Method 18 patients (4 men, age range 60 ‐ 80 years) underwent polysomnography, neuropsychological examination and brai...

Aim: The aim of the study was to present the second version of the innovative Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) test and to verify how the results change during repeated testing with diff erent or same versions of the ALBA test. Participants and methods: First, we created version 2 according to the same principles as the fi rst version. We...

Introduction: Measurement of an- hippocampal area or volume is useful in clinical practice as a supportive aid for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Since it is time-consuming and not simple, it is not being used very often. We present a simplified protocol for hippocampal atrophy evaluation based on a single optimal slice in Alzheimer's disease....

Aim: An online questionnaire study was used to examine subjective memory evaluation of elderly persons, previous experience with computerized cognitive training, interest in memory training using electronic devices and the preferred training technique. Methods: An online questionnaire containing 40 questions divided into 6 areas of interest was cre...

Aims The purpose of the study was to evaluate the reliability of our new visual scale for a quick atrophy assessment of parietal lobes on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) among different professionals. A good agreement would justify its use for differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative dementias, especially early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (...

The aim of this normative study was to verify recognition and name agreement of 70 black and white line pictures on a large Czech population sample using an electronic form. The set of pictures was selected based on previous research showing preliminary evidence of high name agreement with one word only. The pictures were arrayed into an electronic...

Differential diagnosis of slowly progressive cognitive disorders. The aim of the review article is to acquaint the reader with the most frequent causes of gradually developing cognitive disorders. We want to point out the possibilities of their differential diagnosis in routine clinical practice and using modern diagnostic approaches. We introduce...

Aim Memory impairment can accompany various brain disorders. An original Czech test was developed for their easy detection in clinical settings and is based on recall combination of one short sentence and six gestures. Participants and methods The new Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) test consists of a one-time encoding of a six-word sente...

Importance Neurofilament light protein (NfL) is elevated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of a number of neurological conditions compared with healthy controls (HC) and is a candidate biomarker for neuroaxonal damage. The influence of age and sex is largely unknown, and levels across neurological disorders have not been compared systematically to date....

Background We aimed to produce a detailed neuropathological analysis of pyramidal motor system pathology and provide its clinical pathological correlation in cases with definite progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Methods Pyramidal motor system pathologies were analyzed in 18 cases with neuropathologically confirmed PSP. Based on a retrospective...

Aim: Surface tension of biological fluids can be influenced by changes in oligomerization or aggregation of surfactant peptides or proteins. Amphiphilic peptides of amyloid-β or other amyloidogenic peptides/proteins display properties of surfactants, oligomerization and aggregation increase also their fluorescence intensity compared with native st...

Ratios between opposing volumes from brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide additional information to volumes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Brain three-dimensional MPRAGE MRI at 3T were segmented into 44 regions using FreeSurfer v6 in 75 participants. The region's size in absolute volumes and relative proportions to the whole brain volum...

Aim: Our intention was to as­sess whether a scor­­ing of parietal atrophy on MRI of the brain us­­ing a simple visual as­ses­sment named PAS (Parietal Atrophy Score) could be used in the dia­gnosis of late-onset Alzheimer‘s dis­ease. Patients and methods: The structure of the parietal lobes was evaluated by our visual scale named PAS, which is base...

Aim: We aimed to characterize the role of mitochondrial 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 10 (17β-HSD10) overexpression in multiple sclerosis (MS) and to evaluate its use as a biomarker. Materials & methods: We estimated levels of 17β-HSD10, amyloid β 1-42, cyclophilin D, 17β-HSD10-cyclophilin D complexes or 17β-HSD10-parkin complexes in cereb...

Background: The Czech version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-CZ) and delayed recall of 5 words have not been validated in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer disease (AD) and compared to norms of a large population. Method: The MoCA-CZ was administered to 1,600 elderly individuals in 2 groups consisting of 48...

Objective: To evaluate changes in the expression of clock genes and melatonin levels in patients with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) as a potential early stage of synucleinopathies. Methods: We assessed the rhythmicity of circadian clock genes using real time-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and 24-h blood melatonin profiles...

Aim: Our intention was to create a simple visual evaluation of parietal atrophy on MRI of the brain useful in identifying neurodegenerative dementias, especially Alzheimer‘s disease. We assessed the changes of the parietal regions during natural aging. Patients and methods: We created a new rating scale that we named the Parietal atrophy score. Thi...

Background: Unlike antibodies against amyloid-β, little is known about serum antibodies to neuron-specific cytoskeletal proteins in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objective: We aimed to study IgG autoantibodies against tau protein, light (NFL) and heavy subunits (NFH) of neurofilaments in serum of AD patients and elderly controls and to...

The presence of pre-existing natural antibodies against Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathological proteins might interfere with immune responses to therapeutic vaccination with these proteins. We aimed to compare levels of antibodies in CSF and serum: We observed higher reactivity of natural tau-reactive antibodies towards phosphorylated bovine tau pro...

Objective: Alzheimer disease is traditionally conceptualized as a disease of brain gray matter, however, studies with diffusion tensor imaging have demonstrated that Alzheimer disease also involves alterations in white matter integrity. We measured number of tracts, tracts length, tract volume, quantitative anisotropy and general fractional anisot...

Aim: A quick and simple examination can detect early impairment of episodic memory. The aim of the study was to develop an original Czech test which would simulate episodic memory and could be administered without any aids anytime and anywhere. Participants and methods: Participants demonstrated six gestures symbolic for all human senses (twice for...

Aim: Memory testing is crucial for assessment of cognitive functions in Alzheimer‘s disease (AD). A recall of a sentence could serve for such purpose in clinical practice. Participants and methods: Patients with mild AD according to Mini-Mental State Examination scores of 24 ± 3 points and the normal elderly persons with MMSE 29 ± 1 points, of simi...

The presence of natural tau-reactive antibodies was reported in human blood. In this study, we isolated and characterized natural tau-reactive antibodies occurring in IVIG product Flebogamma, plasma of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and older cognitively normal persons (controls). Using blotting immunoassays and ELISA, we showed reactivity...

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic potential of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum levels of neurocytoskeletal proteins and their ratios for the diagnosis of dementias and to assess the differences in neurocytoskeletal proteins between neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. Methods: CSF and serum levels of neurofilamen...

Although tau protein was long regarded as an intracellular protein with several functions inside the cell, new evidence has shown tau secretion into the extracellular space. The active secretion of tau could be a physiological response of neurons to increased intracellular amounts of tau during the progression of tau pathology. We looked for potent...

Aims: To optimise the ELISA method for the avidity of IgG antibodies against neurofilament heavy chain (NfH) and to determine the levels and avidity of anti-NfH antibodies in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a healthy control group. Methods: Various dilutions of sera and concentrations of urea and sodium chloride as chaotropic reagents...

Background: There is a lack of normative studies of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for comparison with early Alzheimer's disease (AD) according to new diagnostic criteria. Participants and methods: We administered the MMSE to normal elderly Czechs and to patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia due to AD accordin...

Abstract Text: Background: There is an immediate need of developing reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimerâs disease (AD), where studying blood­derived biomarker has become a current trend. Tau protein, conventionally regarded as intracellular, is secreted in the healthy young brain from active neurons into the brain interstitium and...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease often accompanied with disruption of sleep-wake cycle. The sleep-wake cycle is controlled by mechanisms involving internal timekeeping (circadian) regulation. The aim of our present pilot study was to assess the circadian system in patients with mild form of AD in their home environment. In th...

Clinical and biomarker characteristics of 13 patients with Alzheimer disease involved in the study. Clinical status of the patients was characterized using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) [39, 50]. Changes on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were evaluated using medial temporal lobe atrophy (...

Aim: Physicians and other professionals who do not have enough time or experience to assess cognitive functions by simple evaluation wish to have an access to a brief and simple assessment tool. Therefore, we developed an original Czech test that would quickly assess speech, long-Term semantic and short-Term visual memory. Material and methods: We...

Chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) has been proposed as a biomarker associated with the conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis in patients with clinically isolated syndromes, based on the finding of increased cerebrospinal fluid CHI3L1 levels in clinically isolated syndrome patients who later converted to multiple sclerosis compared to those...

In clinical practice as well as in many volumetric studies we use different reorientations of the brain position towards x and y axis on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. In order to find out whether it has an overall effect on the resulting 2D data, manual hippocampal area measurements and rotation variability of the brain (in two reorie...

Immunoaffinity Purification and Characterization of Specific Antibodies against Recombinant Tau Protein from Intravenous Immunoglobulin Product Lenka Hromadkovaa,b,c, Michala Kolarovaa,d, Barbora Jankovicovac, Ales Bartosa,e, Jan Ricnya, Zuzana Bilkovac and Daniela Ripovaa aLaboratory of Biochemistry and Brain Pathophysiology and AD Center, Pragu...

Background: Antibodies against tau protein are found in human sera and they might play a role in some pathological conditions (Alzheimer disease, tauopathies) and/or serve as disease-status indicators. ELISA technique is often used for the detection/quantification; however, concentration of these antibodies in sera represents just a tiny fraction o...

It is well known that misfolded peptides/proteins can play a role in processes of normal ageing and in the pathogenesis of many diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Previously, we evaluated samples of cerebrospinal fluid from patients with Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis by means of thioflavin-T-based fluorescence. We observed attenua...

Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was created in 2005 to capture people with mild cognitive dysfunction (in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease or with mild cognitive impairment) and to differentiate them from healthy people. MoCA investigates six cognitive domains (executive function, visual-spatial skills, shortterm memory, attention, lang...

Aim: Our aim was to determine diagnostic characteristics of the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) using its training version for better administration in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) for the first time in Czech literature. Patients and methods: We complemented the test form with instructions for the patient, and with administration and...

Background: The handling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) affects the biomarker quantification used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD). Only specialized centers can test for AD markers. The precise timing and freezing is required to correctly measure these biomarkers. Therefore, the effects of CSF storage temperature and repeated freeze/thaw cycles...