| 1. |
- Karlsson, Linda, et al.
(author)
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Cerebrospinal fluid reference proteins increase accuracy and interpretability of biomarkers for brain diseases.
- 2024
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In: Nature Communications. - 2041-1723. ; 15:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers reflect brain pathophysiology and are used extensively in translational research as well as in clinical practice for diagnosis of neurological diseases, e.g., Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, CSF biomarker concentrations may be influenced by non-disease related inter-individual variability. Here we use a data-driven approach to demonstrate the existence of inter-individual variability in mean standardized CSF protein levels. We show that these non-disease related differences cause many commonly reported CSF biomarkers to be highly correlated, thereby producing misleading results if not accounted for. To adjust for this inter-individual variability, we identified and evaluated high-performing reference proteins which improved the diagnostic accuracy of key CSF AD biomarkers. Our reference protein method attenuates the risk for false positive findings, and improves the sensitivity and specificity of CSF biomarkers, with broad implications for both research and clinical practice.
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| 2. |
- Lantero Rodriguez, Juan, et al.
(author)
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Plasma N-terminal containing tau fragments (NTA-tau): a biomarker of tau deposition in Alzheimer's Disease
- 2024
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In: MOLECULAR NEURODEGENERATION. - 1750-1326. ; 19:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Novel phosphorylated-tau (p-tau) blood biomarkers (e.g., p-tau181, p-tau217 or p-tau231), are highly specific for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and can track amyloid-beta (A beta) and tau pathology. However, because these biomarkers are strongly associated with the emergence of A beta pathology, it is difficult to determine the contribution of insoluble tau aggregates to the plasma p-tau signal in blood. Therefore, there remains a need for a biomarker capable of specifically tracking insoluble tau accumulation in brain. Methods NTA is a novel ultrasensitive assay targeting N-terminal containing tau fragments (NTA-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma, which is elevated in AD. Using two well-characterized research cohorts (BioFINDER-2, n = 1,294, and BioFINDER-1, n = 932), we investigated the association between plasma NTA-tau levels and disease progression in AD, including tau accumulation, brain atrophy and cognitive decline. Results We demonstrate that plasma NTA-tau increases across the AD continuum, especially during late stages, and displays a moderate-to-strong association with tau-PET (beta = 0.54, p < 0.001) in A beta-positive participants, while weak with A beta-PET (beta = 0.28, p < 0.001). Unlike plasma p-tau181, GFAP, NfL and t-tau, tau pathology determined with tau-PET is the most prominent contributor to NTA-tau variance (52.5% of total R-2), while having very low contribution from A beta pathology measured with CSF A beta 42/40 (4.3%). High baseline NTA-tau levels are predictive of tau-PET accumulation (R-2 = 0.27), steeper atrophy (R-2 >= 0.18) and steeper cognitive decline (R-2 >= 0.27) in participants within the AD continuum. Plasma NTA-tau levels significantly increase over time in A beta positive cognitively unimpaired (beta(std) = 0.16) and impaired (beta(std) = 0.18) at baseline compared to their A beta negative counterparts. Finally, longitudinal increases in plasma NTA-tau levels were associated with steeper longitudinal decreases in cortical thickness (R-2 = 0.21) and cognition (R-2 = 0.20). Conclusion Our results indicate that plasma NTA-tau levels increase across the AD continuum, especially during mid-to-late AD stages, and it is closely associated with in vivo tau tangle deposition in AD and its downstream effects. Moreover, this novel biomarker has potential as a cost-effective and easily accessible tool for monitoring disease progression and cognitive decline in clinical settings, and as an outcome measure in clinical trials which also need to assess the downstream effects of successful A beta removal.
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| 3. |
- Mattsson-Carlgren, Niklas, et al.
(author)
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Plasma Biomarker Strategy for Selecting Patients With Alzheimer Disease for Antiamyloid Immunotherapies
- 2024
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In: JAMA neurology. - 2168-6157 .- 2168-6149. ; 81:1, s. 69-78
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Antiamyloid immunotherapies against Alzheimer disease (AD) are emerging. Scalable, cost-effective tools will be needed to identify amyloid β (Aβ)-positive patients without an advanced stage of tau pathology who are most likely to benefit from these therapies. Blood-based biomarkers might reduce the need to use cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or positron emission tomography (PET) for this.To evaluate plasma biomarkers for identifying Aβ positivity and stage of tau accumulation.The cohort study (BioFINDER-2) was a prospective memory-clinic and population-based study. Participants with cognitive concerns were recruited from 2017 to 2022 and divided into a training set (80% of the data) and test set (20%).Baseline values for plasma phosphorylated tau 181 (p-tau181), p-tau217, p-tau231, N-terminal tau, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and neurofilament light chain.Performance to classify participants by Aβ status (defined by Aβ-PET or CSF Aβ42/40) and tau status (tau PET). Number of hypothetically saved PET scans in a plasma biomarker-guided workflow.Of a total 912 participants, there were 499 males (54.7%) and 413 females (45.3%), and the mean (SD) age was 71.1 (8.49) years. Among the biomarkers, plasma p-tau217 was most strongly associated with Aβ positivity (test-set area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC]=0.94; 95% CI, 0.90-0.97). A 2-cut-point procedure was evaluated, where only participants with ambiguous plasma p-tau217 values (17.1% of the participants in the test set) underwent CSF or PET to assign definitive Aβ status. This procedure had an overall sensitivity of 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90-0.98) and a specificity of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.77-0.95). Next, plasma biomarkers were used to differentiate low-intermediate vs high tau-PET load among Aβ-positive participants. Plasma p-tau217 again performed best, with the test AUC=0.92 (95% CI, 0.86-0.97), without significant improvement when adding any of the other plasma biomarkers. At a false-negative rate less than 10%, the use of plasma p-tau217 could avoid 56.9% of tau-PET scans needed to identify high tau PET among Aβ-positive participants. The results were validated in an independent cohort (n=118).This study found that algorithms using plasma p-tau217 can accurately identify most Aβ-positive individuals, including those likely to have a high tau load who would require confirmatory tau-PET imaging. Plasma p-tau217 measurements may substantially reduce the number of invasive and costly confirmatory tests required to identify individuals who would likely benefit from antiamyloid therapies.
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| 4. |
- Mendes, Augusto J., et al.
(author)
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Head-to-head study of diagnostic accuracy of plasma and cerebrospinal fluid p-tau217 versus p-tau181 and p-tau231 in a memory clinic cohort
- 2024
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In: JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY. - 0340-5354 .- 1432-1459.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background and objective Phosphorylated tau (p-tau) 217 has recently received attention because it seems more reliable than other p-tau variants for identifying Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Thus, we aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of plasma and CSF p-tau217 with p-tau181 and p-tau231 in a memory clinic cohort.Methods The study included 114 participants (CU = 33; MCI = 67; Dementia = 14). The p-tau variants were correlated versus continuous measures of amyloid (A) and tau (T)-PET. The p-tau phospho-epitopes were assessed through: (i) effect sizes (delta) between diagnostic and A +/- and T +/- groups; (ii) receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in A-PET and T-PET.Results The correlations between both plasma and CSF p-tau217 with A-PET and T-PET (r range 0.64-0.83) were stronger than those of p-tau181 (r range 0.44-0.79) and p-tau231 (r range 0.46-0.76). Plasma p-tau217 showed significantly higher diagnostic accuracy than p-tau181 and p-tau231 in (i) differences between diagnostic and biomarker groups (delta(range): p-tau217 = 0.55-0.96; p-tau181 = 0.51-0.67; p-tau231 = 0.53-0.71); (ii) ROC curves to identify A-PET and T-PET positivity (AUC(average): p-tau217 = 0.96; p-tau181 = 0.76; p-tau231 = 0.79). On the other hand, CSF p-tau217 (AUC(average) = 0.95) did not reveal significant differences in A-PET and T-PET AUC than p-tau181 (AUC(average) = 0.88) and p-tau231 (AUC(average) = 0.89).Discussion Plasma p-tau217 demonstrated better performance in the identification of AD pathology and clinical phenotypes in comparison with other variants of p-tau in a memory clinic cohort. Furthermore, p-tau217 had comparable performance in plasma and CSF. Our findings suggest the potential of plasma p-tau217 in the diagnosis and screening for AD, which could allow for a decreased use of invasive biomarkers in the future.
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| 5. |
- Nilsson, Johanna, 1993, et al.
(author)
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Cerebrospinal fluid biomarker panel for synaptic dysfunction in a broad spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases.
- 2024
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In: Brain : a journal of neurology. - 1460-2156.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Synaptic dysfunction and degeneration is likely the key pathophysiology for the progression of cognitive decline in various dementia disorders. Synaptic status can be monitored by measurement of synaptic proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the current study, the aim was to investigate and compare both known and new synaptic proteins as potential biomarkers of synaptic dysfunction, especially in the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Seventeen synaptic proteins were quantified in CSF using two different targeted mass spectrometry assays in the prospective Swedish BioFINDER-2 study. The study included 958 individuals, characterized as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=205), AD dementia (n=149), and a spectrum of other neurodegenerative diseases (n=171), as well as cognitively unimpaired (CU, n=443). Synaptic protein levels were compared between diagnostic groups and their associations with cognitive decline and key neuroimaging measures (Aβ-PET, tau-PET, and cortical thickness) were assessed. Among the 17 synaptic proteins examined, 14 were specifically elevated in the AD continuum. SNAP-25, 14-3-3 zeta/delta, beta-synuclein, and neurogranin exhibited the highest discriminatory accuracy to differentiate AD dementia from controls (AUCs=0.81-0.93). SNAP-25 and 14-3-3 zeta/delta also had the strongest associations with tau-PET, Aβ-PET, and cortical thickness at baseline, and were associated with longitudinal changes in these imaging biomarkers (β(SE)=-0.056(0.0006) to 0.058(0.005), p<0.0001). SNAP-25 was the strongest predictor of progression to AD dementia in non-demented individuals (Hazard ratio=2.11). In contrast, neuronal pentraxins were decreased in all neurodegenerative diseases (except for Parkinson's disease), and NPTX2 showed the strongest associations with subsequent cognitive decline (longitudinal MMSE; β(SE)=0.57(0.1), p≤0.0001 and mPACC; β(SE)=0.095(0.024), p≤0.001) across the AD continuum. Interestingly, utilizing a ratio of the proteins that displayed higher levels in AD, such as SNAP-25 or 14-3-3 zeta/delta, over NPTX2 improved the biomarkers' association with cognitive decline and brain atrophy. We found that especially 14-3-3 zeta/delta and SNAP-25 are promising synaptic biomarkers of pathophysiological changes in AD. Neuronal pentraxins were identified as general indicators of neurodegeneration and associated with cognitive decline across various neurodegenerative dementias. The ratios of SNAP-25/NPTX2 and 14-3-3 zeta/delta/NPTX2 were found to best predict cognitive decline and brain atrophy.
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| 6. |
- Scheeren Brum, Wagner, 1997, et al.
(author)
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A blood-based biomarker workflow for optimal tau-PET referral in memory clinic settings.
- 2024
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In: Nature communications. - 2041-1723. ; 15:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Blood-based biomarkers for screening may guide tau positrion emissition tomography (PET) scan referrals to optimize prognostic evaluation in Alzheimer's disease. Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40, pTau181, pTau217, pTau231, NfL, and GFAP were measured along with tau-PET in memory clinic patients with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment or dementia, in the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study (n=548) and in the TRIAD study (n=179). For each plasma biomarker, cutoffs were determined for 90%, 95%, or 97.5% sensitivity to detect tau-PET-positivity. We calculated the percentage of patients below the cutoffs (who would not undergo tau-PET; "saved scans") and the tau-PET-positivity rate among participants above the cutoffs (who would undergo tau-PET; "positive predictive value"). Generally, plasma pTau217 performed best. At the 95% sensitivity cutoff in both cohorts, pTau217 resulted in avoiding nearly half tau-PET scans, with a tau-PET-positivity rate among those who would be referred for a scan around 70%. And although tau-PET was strongly associated with subsequent cognitive decline, in BioFINDER-2 it predicted cognitive decline only among individuals above the referral cutoff on plasma pTau217, supporting that this workflow could reduce prognostically uninformative tau-PET scans. In conclusion, plasma pTau217 may guide selection of patients for tau-PET, when accurate prognostic information is of clinical value.
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| 7. |
- Therriault, Joseph, et al.
(author)
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Comparison of immunoassay- with mass spectrometry-derived p-tau quantification for the detection of Alzheimer’s disease pathology
- 2024
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In: Molecular Neurodegeneration. - 1750-1326. ; 19:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Antibody-based immunoassays have enabled quantification of very low concentrations of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) protein forms in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), aiding in the diagnosis of AD. Mass spectrometry enables absolute quantification of multiple p-tau variants within a single run. The goal of this study was to compare the performance of mass spectrometry assessments of p-tau181, p-tau217 and p-tau231 with established immunoassay techniques. Methods: We measured p-tau181, p-tau217 and p-tau231 concentrations in CSF from 173 participants from the TRIAD cohort and 394 participants from the BioFINDER-2 cohort using both mass spectrometry and immunoassay methods. All subjects were clinically evaluated by dementia specialists and had amyloid-PET and tau-PET assessments. Bland–Altman analyses evaluated the agreement between immunoassay and mass spectrometry p-tau181, p-tau217 and p-tau231. P-tau associations with amyloid-PET and tau-PET uptake were also compared. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses compared the performance of mass spectrometry and immunoassays p-tau concentrations to identify amyloid-PET positivity. Results: Mass spectrometry and immunoassays of p-tau217 were highly comparable in terms of diagnostic performance, between-group effect sizes and associations with PET biomarkers. In contrast, p-tau181 and p-tau231 concentrations measured using antibody-free mass spectrometry had lower performance compared with immunoassays. Conclusions: Our results suggest that while similar overall, immunoassay-based p-tau biomarkers are slightly superior to antibody-free mass spectrometry-based p-tau biomarkers. Future work is needed to determine whether the potential to evaluate multiple biomarkers within a single run offsets the slightly lower performance of antibody-free mass spectrometry-based p-tau quantification.
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