Cited by 180Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

CSF tau microtubule binding region identifies tau tangle and clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease

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Horie, Kanta, Barthélemy, Nicolas R, Sato, Chihiro, Bateman, Randall J·2021·Brain

Abstract

Tau is a microtubule associated protein in the brain that aggregates in Alzheimer's disease to form pathological tangles and neurites. Insoluble tau aggregates composed of the microtubule binding region (MTBR) of tau are highly associated with the cognitive and clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. In contrast, levels of soluble forms of tau, such as CSF total tau and phosphorylated tau-181 and tau-217, increase prior to tau aggregation in Alzheimer's disease, but these biomarkers do not measure the MTBR of tau. Thus, how CSF MTBR-tau is altered in Alzheimer's disease remains unclear. In this study, we used sequential immunoprecipitation and chemical extraction methods followed by mass spectrometry to analyse MTBR-tau species in Alzheimer's disease and control CSF. We quantified MTBR-tau-specific regions in the CSF and identified that species containing the region beginning at residue 243 were the most highly correlated with tau PET and cognitive measures. This finding suggests that CSF level of tau species containing the upstream region of MTBR may reflect changes in tau pathology that occur in Alzheimer's disease and could serve as biomarkers to stage Alzheimer's disease and track the development of tau-directed therapeutics.

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Crossref · 10.1093/brain/awaa373

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  • Both total and phosphorylated tau are increased in the CSF of AD patients and can predict the progression of the disease.

    “Furthermore, both total and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) are increased in the CSF of AD patients and can predict the progression of the disease [22,30,31].”

    From Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: Beyond Symptomatic Therapies (2023) · cites this paper as [30]

    The Abstract (page not provided) states that CSF total tau and phosphorylated tau-181 and tau-217 increase in Alzheimer’s disease. However, the Results passage on predicting disease progression concerns the distinct MTBR-tau-243 species, not total or phosphorylated tau, so the prediction claim is not supported for those biomarkers. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Recent clinical evidence indicates that antibodies targeting the microtubule-binding region (MTBR, residues 224 to 369) or phosphorylated epitopes around the center of tau are more likely to prevent the propagation of pathogenic aggregated tau.

    “Recent clinical evidence indicates that antibodies targeting the microtubule-binding region (MTBR, residues 224 to 369) or phosphorylated epitopes around the center of tau are more likely to prevent the propagation of pathogenic aggregated tau [235, 236].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Johnson KA, Schultz A, Betensky RA, Becker JA, Sepulcre J, Rentz D, et al. Tau PET imaging in aging and early Alzheimer’s disease. Ann Neurol 2016; 79: 110–9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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Authors
Horie, K., Barthélemy, N. R., Sato, C., & Bateman, R. J.
Affiliations
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Corresponding author
Bateman, Randall J
Venue
Brain
Published
2020-12-07
Volume
144
Issue
2
Pages
515-527
ISSN
  • 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2156
OpenAlex
W3111942360
Cited by
180
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 26 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 1
FWCI
11.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Brain (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS095773)
  • Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital
  • John and Linda Tracy Family
  • Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust
  • Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship
  • NIH (R01NS065667, P01 AG03991, P50 AG05681, P01 AG026276, P30 NS048056)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, tau protein, microtubule-binding region, cerebrospinal fluid, tau tangles, tau aggregation, disease staging, biomarkers, tau PET, cognitive impairment, tau phosphorylation
MeSH terms
Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Binding Sites, Brain, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Biomarkers, tau Proteins

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