Researchers Find Tau Aggregate-Specific Biomarker in Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers have uncovered a new biomarker for tau aggregates that can be detected within cerebrospinal fluid, which they say could help gauge the effect of tau-targeted Alzheimer's disease therapies. Since previous research had suggested a link between MTBR-tau243 and tau aggregation —one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease — researchers from the US, Sweden, and the Netherlands compare in a new study in Nature Medicine the presence of MTBR-tau243 as a biomarker with PET imaging of tau and amyloid as well as with other measures of phosphorylated tau (p-tau). Within two cohorts tested, MTBR-tau243 was strongly associated with tau-PET and cognition, and appeared to increase longitudinally with insoluble tau aggregates, in contrast to CSF p-tau. The researchers further note that MTBR-tau243 had a limited association with amyloid-PET, setting it apart from other disease markers that can be influenced by amyloid and suggesting MTBR-tau243 is a tau aggregate-specific biomarker. "Based on these results, our study suggests that CSF MTBR-tau243 may be a viable alternative to tau-PET for use as a pre-screening tool or a tau pathology end point surrogate for clinical trials and also as an accurate diagnostic measure of tau pathology," the researchers write.