scholarly journals Cerebrospinal fluid tau fragment correlates with tau PET: a candidate biomarker for tangle pathology

Brain ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
pp. 650-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaj Blennow ◽  
Chun Chen ◽  
Claudia Cicognola ◽  
Kristin R Wildsmith ◽  
Paul T Manser ◽  
...  

Abstract To date, there is no validated fluid biomarker for tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, with contradictory results from studies evaluating the correlation between phosphorylated tau in CSF with tau PET imaging. Tau protein is subjected to proteolytic processing into fragments before being secreted to the CSF. A recent study suggested that tau cleavage after amino acid 368 by asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) is upregulated in Alzheimer’s disease. We used immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometric analyses to evaluate the presence of tau368 species in CSF. A novel Simoa® assay for quantification of tau368 in CSF was developed, while total tau (t-tau) was measured by ELISA and the presence of tau368 in tangles was evaluated using immunohistochemistry. The diagnostic utility of tau368 was first evaluated in a pilot study (Alzheimer’s disease = 20, control = 20), then in a second cohort where the IWG-2 biomarker criteria were applied (Alzheimer’s disease = 37, control = 45), and finally in a third cohort where the correlation with 18F-GTP1 tau PET was evaluated (Alzheimer’s disease = 38, control = 11). The tau368/t-tau ratio was significantly decreased in Alzheimer’s disease (P < 0.001) in all cohorts. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that tau fragments ending at 368 are present in tangles. There was a strong negative correlation between the CSF tau368/t-tau ratio and 18F-GTP1 retention. Our data suggest that tau368 is a tangle-enriched fragment and that the CSF ratio tau368/t-tau reflects tangle pathology. This novel tau biomarker could be used to improve diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and to facilitate the development of drug candidates targeting tau pathology. Furthermore, future longitudinal studies will increase our understanding of tau pathophysiology in Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren ◽  
Shorena Janelidze ◽  
Randall Bateman ◽  
Ruben Smith ◽  
Erik Stomrud ◽  
...  

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by β-amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Plasma levels of phospho-tau217 (P-tau217) accurately differentiate Alzheimer’s disease dementia from other dementias, but it is unclear to what degree this reflects β-amyloid plaque accumulation, tau tangle accumulation, or both. In a cohort with post-mortem neuropathological data (N=88), both plaque and tangle density contributed independently to higher P-tau217. Several findings were replicated in a cohort with PET imaging (“BioFINDER-2”, N=426), where β-amyloid and tau PET were independently associated to P-tau217. P-tau217 correlated with β-amyloid PET (but not tau PET) in early disease stages, and with both β-amyloid and (more strongly) tau PET in late disease stages. Finally, P-tau217 mediated the association between β-amyloid and tau in both cohorts, especially for tau outside of the medial temporal lobe. These findings support the hypothesis that plasma P-tau217 is increased by both β-amyloid plaques and tau tangles and is congruent with the hypothesis that P-tau is involved in β-amyloid-dependent formation of neocortical tau tangles.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (16) ◽  
pp. eaaz2387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren ◽  
Emelie Andersson ◽  
Shorena Janelidze ◽  
Rik Ossenkoppele ◽  
Philip Insel ◽  
...  

The links between β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau in Alzheimer’s disease are unclear. Cognitively unimpaired persons with signs of Aβ pathology had increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphorylated tau (P-tau181 and P-tau217) and total-tau (T-tau), which increased over time, despite no detection of insoluble tau aggregates [normal Tau positron emission tomography (PET)]. CSF P-tau and T-tau started to increase before the threshold for Amyloid PET positivity, while Tau PET started to increase after Amyloid PET positivity. Effects of Amyloid PET on Tau PET were mediated by CSF P-tau, and high CSF P-tau predicted increased Tau PET rates. Individuals with MAPT mutations and signs of tau deposition (but without Aβ pathology) had normal CSF P-tau levels. In 5xFAD mice, CSF tau increased when Aβ aggregation started. These results show that Aβ pathology may induce changes in soluble tau release and phosphorylation, which is followed by tau aggregation several years later in humans.


2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (7) ◽  
pp. 740-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha S Foiani ◽  
Claudia Cicognola ◽  
Natalia Ermann ◽  
Ione O C Woollacott ◽  
Carolin Heller ◽  
...  

BackgroundFrontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a pathologically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder associated usually with tau or TDP-43 pathology, although some phenotypes such as logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia are more commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Currently, there are no biomarkers able to diagnose the underlying pathology during life. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential of novel tau species within cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as biomarkers for tau pathology in FTD.Methods86 participants were included: 66 with a clinical diagnosis within the FTD spectrum and 20 healthy controls. Immunoassays targeting tau fragments N-123, N-mid-region, N-224 and X-368, as well as a non-phosphorylated form of tau were measured in CSF, along with total-tau (T-tau) and phospho-tau (P-tau(181)). Patients with FTD were grouped based on their Aβ42 level into those likely to have underlying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology (n=21) and those with likely frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) pathology (n=45). The FTLD group was then subgrouped based on their underlying clinical and genetic diagnoses into those with likely tau (n=7) or TDP-43 (n=18) pathology.ResultsSignificantly higher concentrations of tau N-mid-region, tau N-224 and non-phosphorylated tau were seen in both the AD group and FTLD group compared with controls. However, none of the novel tau species showed a significant difference between the AD and FTLD groups, nor between the TDP-43 and tau pathology groups. In a subanalysis, normalising for total-tau, none of the novel tau species provided a higher sensitivity and specificity to distinguish between tau and TDP-43 pathology than P-tau(181)/T-tau, which itself only had a sensitivity of 61.1% and specificity of 85.7% with a cut-off of <0.109.ConclusionsDespite investigating multiple novel CSF tau fragments, none show promise as an FTD biomarker and so the quest for in vivo markers of FTLD-tau pathology continues.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soyeon Kim ◽  
Kiwon Kim ◽  
Kwangsik Nho ◽  
Woojae Myung ◽  
Hong-Hee Won

Abstract Background: Whether the epidemiological association of amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau pathology with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is causal remains unclear. Recent failures to demonstrate the efficacy of several Aβ-modifying drugs may indicate a possibility that the observed association is not causal, which led to efforts to develop tau-directed treatments whose efficacy remains tentative. Methods: Herein, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomisation analysis to investigate shared genetic background between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for amyloid and tau pathology and risk for AD, and to find genetic evidence for causal association between these CSF biomarkers and risk for AD. We used summary statistics of genome-wide association study (GWAS) for CSF biomarkers (Aβ 1-42 , phosphorylated tau 181 [p-tau], and total tau [t-tau]) in 3,146 individuals and for late-onset AD (LOAD) in 21,982 LOAD cases and 41,944 cognitively-normal controls. We tested association between changes in the genetically-predicted CSF biomarkers and LOAD risk. Results: We found a decrease in the LOAD risk per one-standard deviation (SD) increase in the genetically-predicted CSF Aβ (odds ratio [OR], 2.87×10 -3 for AD; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.54×10 -4 –0.05; p = 8.91×10 -5 ). Conversely, we observed an increase in the LOAD risk per one-SD increase in the genetically-predicted CSF p-tau (OR, 19.46; 95% CI, 1.50–2.52×10 2 ; p = 0.02) and t-tau (OR, 33.80; 95% CI, 1.57–7.29×10 2 ; p = 0.02). Conclusions: Our findings suggest a shared genetic background between the CSF biomarkers and LOAD risk. Although it requires validation by future studies including more genetic variants identified in large-scale GWASs for CSF biomarkers, our results suggest a causal association between CSF biomarkers and risk for LOAD Keywords: CSF biomarkers, Amyloid, Tau, Alzheimer’s disease


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (7S_Part_2) ◽  
pp. P109-P110
Author(s):  
Joseph Seemiller ◽  
Masoud Tahmasian ◽  
Igor Yakushev ◽  
Alexander Drzezga

2021 ◽  
pp. jnnp-2020-325497
Author(s):  
Ellen Singleton ◽  
Oskar Hansson ◽  
Yolande A. L. Pijnenburg ◽  
Renaud La Joie ◽  
William G Mantyh ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe clinical phenotype of the rare behavioural variant of Alzheimer’s disease (bvAD) is insufficiently understood. Given the strong clinico-anatomical correlations of tau pathology in AD, we investigated the distribution of tau deposits in bvAD, in-vivo and ex-vivo, using positron emission tomography (PET) and postmortem examination.MethodsFor the tau PET study, seven amyloid-β positive bvAD patients underwent [18F]flortaucipir or [18F]RO948 PET. We converted tau PET uptake values into standardised (W-)scores, adjusting for age, sex and mini mental state examination in a ‘typical’ memory-predominant AD (n=205) group. W-scores were computed within entorhinal, temporoparietal, medial and lateral prefrontal, insular and whole-brain regions-of-interest, frontal-to-entorhinal and frontal-to-parietal ratios and within intrinsic functional connectivity network templates. For the postmortem study, the percentage of AT8 (tau)-positive area in hippocampus CA1, temporal, parietal, frontal and insular cortices were compared between autopsy-confirmed patients with bvAD (n=8) and typical AD (tAD;n=7).ResultsIndividual regional W-scores ≥1.96 (corresponding to p<0.05) were observed in three cases, that is, case #5: medial prefrontal cortex (W=2.13) and anterior default mode network (W=3.79), case #2: lateral prefrontal cortex (W=2.79) and salience network (W=2.77), and case #7: frontal-to-entorhinal ratio (W=2.04). The remaining four cases fell within the normal distributions of the tAD group. Postmortem AT8 staining indicated no group-level regional differences in phosphorylated tau levels between bvAD and tAD (all p>0.05).ConclusionsBoth in-vivo and ex-vivo, patients with bvAD showed heterogeneous distributions of tau pathology. Since key regions involved in behavioural regulation were not consistently disproportionally affected by tau pathology, other factors are more likely driving the clinical phenotype in bvAD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Neitzel ◽  
Nicolai Franzmeier ◽  
Anna Rubinski ◽  
Martin Dichgans ◽  
Matthias Brendel ◽  
...  

AbstractKlotho-VS heterozygosity (KL-VShet) is associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, whether KL-VShet is associated with lower levels of pathologic tau, i.e., the key AD pathology driving neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, is unknown. Here, we assessed the interaction between KL-VShet and levels of beta-amyloid, a key driver of tau pathology, on the levels of PET-assessed neurofibrillary tau in 551 controls and patients across the AD continuum. KL-VShet showed lower cross-sectional and longitudinal increase in tau-PET per unit increase in amyloid-PET when compared to that of non-carriers. This association of KL-VShet on tau-PET was stronger in Klotho mRNA-expressing brain regions mapped onto a gene expression atlas. KL-VShet was related to better memory functions in amyloid-positive participants and this association was mediated by lower tau-PET. Amyloid-PET levels did not differ between KL-VShet carriers versus non-carriers. Together, our findings provide evidence to suggest a protective role of KL-VShet against amyloid-related tau pathology and tau-related memory impairments in elderly humans at risk of AD dementia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Caitlin Jie ◽  
Valerie Treyer ◽  
Roger Schibli ◽  
Linjing Mu

Tauvid has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of adult patients with cognitive impairments undergoing evaluation for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on tau pathology. Abnormal aggregation of tau proteins is one of the main pathologies present in AD and is receiving increasing attention as a diagnostic and therapeutic target. In this review, we summarised the production and quality control of Tauvid, its clinical application, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, as well as its limitation due to off-target binding. Moreover, a brief overview on the second-generation of Tau PET tracers is provided. The approval of Tauvid marks a step forward in the field of AD research and opens up opportunities for second-generation tau tracers to advance tau PET imaging in the clinic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rik Ossenkoppele ◽  
Juhan Reimand ◽  
Ruben Smith ◽  
Antoine Leuzy ◽  
Olof Strandberg ◽  
...  

PET, CSF and plasma biomarkers of tau pathology may be differentially associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) related demographic, cognitive, genetic and neuroimaging markers. We examined 771 participants with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment or dementia from BioFINDER-2 (n=400) and ADNI (n=371). All had tau-PET ([18F]RO948 in BioFINDER-2, [18F]flortaucipir in ADNI) and CSF p-tau181 biomarkers available. Plasma p-tau181 and plasma/CSF p-tau217 were available in BioFINDER-2 only. Concordance between PET, CSF and plasma tau biomarkers ranged between 66% and 95%. Across the whole group, ridge regression models showed that increased CSF and plasma p-tau181 and p-tau217 levels were independently of tau PET associated with higher age, and APOEε4-carriership and Aβ-positivity, while increased tau-PET signal in the temporal cortex was associated with worse cognitive performance and reduced cortical thickness. We conclude that biofluid and neuroimaging markers of tau pathology convey partly independent information, with CSF and plasma p-tau181 and p-tau217 levels being more tightly linked with early markers of AD (especially Aβ pathology), while tau-PET shows the strongest associations with cognitive and neurodegenerative markers of disease progression.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Caprioglio ◽  
Valentina Garibotto ◽  
Frank Jessen ◽  
Lutz Frölich ◽  
Gilles Allali ◽  
...  

Abstract Background. This study aims to investigate the clinical use of the main Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by examining the beliefs and preferences of clinicians and biomarker experts of the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium (EADC).Methods. Out of 306 contacted EADC professionals, 150 (101 clinicians, 43 biomarker experts, and 6 falling into other categories) filled in an online survey from May to September 2020. The investigated biomarkers were: medial temporal lobe atrophy score (MTA) on structural MRI, typical AD (i.e. temporoparietal and posterior cingulate) hypometabolism on FDG-PET, CSF (Aβ42, p-tau, t-tau), amyloid-PET and tau-PET.Results. Despite the abnormal accumulation of amyloid rather than tau was deemed by the majority of responders as the initial cause of AD, responders did not show a clear preference for amyloid-PET. The most widely used biomarker is MTA (77% of responders reported to use it at least frequently), followed by Aβ42, p-tau, t-tau levels in CSF (45%), typical AD hypometabolism on FDG-PET (32%), amyloid-PET (8%), and tau-PET (2%). Imaging and CSF biomarkers were found to be widely used to support the etiological diagnostic process in MCI, while APOE genotyping was performed only in a minority of patients. CSF is considered the most valuable biomarker in terms of additional diagnostic value, followed by amyloid-PET, tau-PET, and typical AD hypometabolism on FDG-PET. The combination of amyloidosis and neuronal injury biomarkers is associated with the highest diagnostic confidence in an etiological diagnosis of AD in MCI, while MTA alone was perceived as the less reliable biomarker.Conclusions. Biomarkers are widely used across Europe for the diagnosis of MCI. Overall, we observed that CSF is currently considered as the most useful biomarker, followed by amyloid-PET. Moreover, the use of molecular imaging (i.e. amyloid-PET and tau-PET) in the diagnostic work-up of MCI patients is increasing over time.


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