Cited by 132Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsMedical Imaging Techniques and Applications

In vivo tau PET imaging in dementia: Pathophysiology, radiotracer quantification, and a systematic review of clinical findings

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Hall, Benjamin, Mak, Elijah, Cervenka, Simon, Aigbirhio, Franklin I., Rowe, James B., O’Brien, John T.·2017·Ageing Research Reviews

Abstract

In addition to the deposition of β-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau are one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Until now, our understanding about the natural history and topography of tau deposition has only been based on post-mortem and cerebrospinal fluid studies, and evidence continues to implicate tau as a central driver of downstream neurodegenerative processes and cognitive decline. Recently, it has become possible to assess the regional distribution and severity of tau burden in vivo with the development of novel radiotracers for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. In this article, we provide a comprehensive discussion of tau pathophysiology, its quantification with novel PET radiotracers, as well as a systematic review of tau PET imaging in normal aging and various dementia conditions: mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and Lewy body dementia. We discuss the main findings in relation to group differences, clinical-cognitive correlations of tau PET, and multi-modal relationships among tau PET and other pathological markers. Collectively, the small but growing literature of tau PET has yielded consistent anatomical patterns of tau accumulation that recapitulate post-mortem distribution of neurofibrillary tangles which correlate with cognitive functions and other markers of pathology. In general, AD is characterised by increased tracer retention in the inferior temporal lobe, extending into the frontal and parietal regions in more severe cases. It is also noted that the spatial topography of tau accumulation is markedly distinct to that of amyloid burden in aging and AD. Tau PET imaging has also revealed characteristic spatial patterns among various non-AD tauopathies, supporting its potential role for differential diagnosis. Finally, we propose novel directions for future tau research, including (a) longitudinal imaging in preclinical dementia, (b) multi-modal mapping of tau pathology onto other pathological processes such as neuroinflammation, and (c) the need for more validation studies against post-mortem samples of the same subjects.

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  • Overall, tau PET deposition mirrors progression of AD pathology and correlates with disease severity.

    “Overall, tau PET deposition mirrors the progression of AD pathology, correlates with disease severity and in that respect it is hypothesised that will become one of the most important tools for the differential diagnosis between AD and non-AD dementias [191, 199, 200].”
  • The ligand [18F]AV-1451 binds aggregated tau in Alzheimer's disease and, less avidly, in non-Alzheimer tauopathies.

    “The latter binds to aggregated tau in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and, with lower affinity, to non-AD tauopathies21.”

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  1. Gomperts, S.N., Locascio, J.J., Makaretz, S.J., Schultz, A., Caso, C., Vasdev, N., Sperling, R., Growdon, J.H., Dickerson, B.C., Johnson, K., 2016. Tau Positron Emission Tomographic Imaging in the Lewy Body Diseases. JAMA Neurol. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2016.3338 · DOI
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Authors
Hall, B., Mak, E., Cervenka, S., Aigbirhio, F. I., Rowe, J. B., & O’Brien, J. T.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (GB)
Venue
Ageing Research Reviews
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-07
Volume
36
Pages
50-63
ISSN
1568-1637 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2601835166
Cited by
132
References
117
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 10
FWCI
2.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Ageing Research Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Apollo
Funders
Wellcome Trust (103838)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Medical Imaging Techniques and Applications
Keywords
tau PET imaging, neurofibrillary tangles, hyperphosphorylated tau, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, mild cognitive impairment, frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, dementia with Lewy bodies, tauopathy, normal aging, inferior temporal lobe, amyloid, differential diagnosis, cognitive decline, neuroinflammation, preclinical dementia
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Dementia, Fluorine Radioisotopes, Humans, Temporal Lobe, Biomarkers, Neurofibrillary Tangles, tau Proteins, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Tauopathies, Positron-Emission Tomography, Plaque, Amyloid, Cognitive Dysfunction

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