Cited by 184Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsCerebrospinal fluid and hydrocephalus

The relationship between cerebrospinal fluid markers of Alzheimer pathology and positron emission tomography tau imaging

Open access
Gordon, Brian A., Friedrichsen, Karl, Brier, Matthew, Blazey, Tyler, Su, Yi, Christensen, Jon, Aldea, Patricia, McConathy, Jonathan +6 more·2016·Brain

Abstract

The two primary molecular pathologies in Alzheimer's disease are amyloid-β plaques and tau-immunoreactive neurofibrillary tangles. Investigations into these pathologies have been restricted to cerebrospinal fluid assays, and positron emission tomography tracers that can image amyloid-β plaques. Tau tracers have recently been introduced into the field, although the utility of the tracer and its relationship to other Alzheimer biomarkers are still unknown. Here we examined tau deposition in 41 cognitively normal and 11 cognitively impaired older adults using the radioactive tau ligand (18)F-AV-1451 (previously known as T807) who also underwent a lumbar puncture to assess cerebrospinal fluid levels of total tau (t-tau), phosphorylated tau181 (p-tau181) and amyloid-β42 Voxel-wise statistical analyses examined spatial patterns of tau deposition associated with cognitive impairment. We then related the amount of tau tracer uptake to levels of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. All analyses controlled for age and gender and, when appropriate, the time between imaging and lumbar puncture assessments. Symptomatic individuals (Clinical Dementia Rating > 0) demonstrated markedly increased levels of tau tracer uptake. This elevation was most prominent in the temporal lobe and temporoparietal junction, but extended more broadly into parietal and frontal cortices. In the entire cohort, there were significant relationships among all cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and tracer uptake, notably for tau-related cerebrospinal fluid markers. After controlling for levels of amyloid-β42, the correlations with tau uptake were r = 0.490 (P < 0.001) for t-tau and r = 0.492 (P < 0.001) for p-tau181 Within the cognitively normal cohort, levels of amyloid-β42, but not t-tau or p-tau181, were associated with elevated tracer binding that was confined primarily to the medial temporal lobe and adjacent neocortical regions. AV-1451 tau binding in the medial temporal, parietal, and frontal cortices is correlated with tau-related cerebrospinal fluid measures. In preclinical Alzheimer's disease, there is focal tauopathy in the medial temporal lobes and adjacent cortices.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/brain/aww139

Cites

48 of 48 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • CSF biomarkers are measures of the concentrations of proteins in CSF from the lumbar sac that reflect the rates of both production and clearance at a given point in time.

    “CSF biomarkers are measures of the concentrations of proteins in CSF from the lumbar sac that reflect the rates of both production (protein expression or release/secretion from neurons or other brain cells) and clearance (degradation or removal) at a given point in time [114,115].”

    From NIA‐AA Research Framework: Toward a biological definition of Alzheimer's disease (2018) · cites this paper as [115]

    The CSF assessment section (page unavailable in our copy) reports that CSF samples were collected and concentrations of tau, phosphorylated tau, and amyloid-β42 were measured in pg/ml; the Participants section says CSF was obtained by lumbar puncture. Neither section, nor the passages retrieved for production and clearance, says those concentrations reflect the rates of protein production and clearance at a given point in time. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The correlation between tau PET ligand binding and elevated CSF P-tau is imperfect.

    “In the limited data currently available, tau PET ligand binding is linearly correlated with elevated CSF P-tau [82,83,115]; however, the correlation is imperfect.”
  • In the limited data currently available, tau PET ligand binding is linearly correlated with elevated CSF P-tau.

    “In the limited data currently available, tau PET ligand binding is linearly correlated with elevated CSF P-tau [82,83,115]; however, the correlation is imperfect.”
  • Differences among (N) biomarkers may result in discordances.

    “These differences may result in discordances [36,43,115,119,159].”
  • The correlation between CSF T-tau and P-tau is typically much higher than between CSF T-tau and MRI measures of atrophy or FDG PET.

    “CSF levels of T-tau and P-tau are tightly correlated within cohorts of AD patients and controls [145], and the correlation between CSF T-tau and P-tau is typically much higher than between CSF T-tau and MRI measures of atrophy or FDG PET [36,115].”

    From NIA‐AA Research Framework: Toward a biological definition of Alzheimer's disease (2018) · cites this paper as [115]

    The ‘Relationship among PET tau binding and CSF biomarkers’ section reports separate correlations of CSF T-tau and P-tau with tau PET, not a correlation between the two CSF measures. The Discussion proposes future analyses using metabolism and structural atrophy; our copy does not compare the claimed correlations with MRI atrophy or FDG PET (searched: T-tau/P-tau correlation, MRI atrophy, FDG PET). Page numbers were unavailable in the indexed passages. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  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: 110-19.
  2. Marquie M, Normandin MD, Vanderburg CR, Costantino I, Bien EA, Rycyna LG, et al. Validating novel tau PET tracer [F-18]-AV-1451 (T807) on postmortem brain tissue. Ann Neurol 2015; 78: 787-800.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gordon, B. A., Friedrichsen, K., Brier, M., Blazey, T., Su, Y., Christensen, J., Aldea, P., McConathy, J., Holtzman, D. M., Cairns, N. J., Morris, J. C., Fagan, A. M., Ances, B. M., & Benzinger, T. L. S.
Affiliations
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Venue
Brain
Published
2016-06-10
Volume
139
Issue
8
Pages
2249-2260
ISSN
  • 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2156
OpenAlex
W2412942072
Cited by
184
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 10
FWCI
24.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Brain (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital
  • Hope Center for Neurological Disorders
  • Foundation of Hope for Research and Treatment of Mental Illness
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000448)
  • National Institute on Aging (P50AG005681, P01AG003991, P01AG026276)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (P30NS048056)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Cerebrospinal fluid and hydrocephalus
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, tau PET imaging, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, total tau, phosphorylated tau 181, amyloid-beta 42, tau deposition, preclinical Alzheimer's disease, cognitive impairment, medial temporal lobe, tauopathy, amyloid plaques
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Carbolines, Female, Humans, Male, Peptide Fragments, Biomarkers, Amyloid beta-Peptides, tau Proteins, Positron-Emission Tomography

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review