Comparing the Clinical Utility and Diagnostic Performance of CSF P-Tau181, P-Tau217, and P-Tau231 Assays.

Phosphorylated tau (p-tau) in CSF is considered an important biomarker in Alzheimer disease (AD) and has been incorporated in recent diagnostic criteria. Several variants exist, including p-tau at threonines 181 (p-tau181), 217 (p-tau217), and 231 (p-tau231). However, no studies have compared their diagnostic performance or association to β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau-PET. Understanding which p-tau variant to use remains an important yet answered question. We aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of p-tau181, p-tau217, and p-tau231 in CSF for AD and their association with Aβ and tau-PET. A total of 629 participants in the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study were included (cognitively unimpaired, n = 334; Aβ-positive mild cognitive impairment, n = 84; AD dementia, n = 119; and non-AD disorders, n = 92). In addition to p-tau181 and p-tau217 measured using assays with the same detector antibodies from Eli Lilly (p-tau181Lilly, p-tau217Lilly) and p-tau231, we also included p-tau181 measurements from 2 commonly used assays (Innotest and Elecsys). Although all p-tau variants increased across the AD continuum, p-tau217Lilly showed the greatest dynamic range (13-fold increase vs 1.9-5.4-fold increase for other p-tau variants for AD dementia vs non-AD). P-Tau217Lilly showed stronger correlations with Aβ- and tau-PET (p < 0.0001). P-Tau217Lilly exhibited higher accuracy than other p-tau variants for separating AD dementia from non-AD (area under the curve [AUC], 0.98 vs 0.88 [p < 0.0001] - 0.96 [p < 0.05]) and for identifying Aβ-PET (AUC, 0.86 vs 0.74 [p < 0.0001] and 0.83 [p < 0.001]) and tau-PET positivity (AUC, 0.94 vs 0.80-0.92, p < 0.0001). Finally, p-Tau181Lilly generally performed better than the other p-tau181 assays (e.g., AD dementia vs non-AD, AUC, 0.96 vs 0.88 [p-tau181Innotest] and 0.89 [p-tau181Elecsys]; p < 0.0001). CSF p-tau217Lilly seems to be more useful than other included p-tau assays in the workup of AD. Varied results across p-tau181 assays highlights the importance of anti-tau antibodies for biomarker performance. This study provides Class II evidence that p-tau217 provides higher diagnostic accuracy for diagnosis of AD dementia than p-tau181 or p-tau231.

Leuzy A ，Janelidze S ，Mattsson-Carlgren N ，Palmqvist S ，Jacobs D ，Cicognola C ，Stomrud E ，Vanmechelen E ，Dage JL ，Hansson O ... -  《-》

Head-to-head comparison of 10 plasma phospho-tau assays in prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

Plasma phospho-tau (p-tau) species have emerged as the most promising blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease. Here, we performed a head-to-head comparison of p-tau181, p-tau217 and p-tau231 measured using 10 assays to detect abnormal brain amyloid-β (Aβ) status and predict future progression to Alzheimer's dementia. The study included 135 patients with baseline diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (mean age 72.4 years; 60.7% women) who were followed for an average of 4.9 years. Seventy-one participants had abnormal Aβ-status (i.e. abnormal CSF Aβ42/40) at baseline; and 45 of these Aβ-positive participants progressed to Alzheimer's dementia during follow-up. P-tau concentrations were determined in baseline plasma and CSF. P-tau217 and p-tau181 were both measured using immunoassays developed by Lilly Research Laboratories (Lilly) and mass spectrometry assays developed at Washington University (WashU). P-tau217 was also analysed using Simoa immunoassay developed by Janssen Research and Development (Janss). P-tau181 was measured using Simoa immunoassay from ADxNeurosciences (ADx), Lumipulse immunoassay from Fujirebio (Fuji) and Splex immunoassay from Mesoscale Discovery (Splex). Both p-tau181 and p-tau231 were quantified using Simoa immunoassay developed at the University of Gothenburg (UGOT). We found that the mass spectrometry-based p-tau217 (p-tau217WashU) exhibited significantly better performance than all other plasma p-tau biomarkers when detecting abnormal Aβ status [area under curve (AUC) = 0.947; Pdiff < 0.015] or progression to Alzheimer's dementia (AUC = 0.932; Pdiff < 0.027). Among immunoassays, p-tau217Lilly had the highest AUCs (0.886-0.889), which was not significantly different from the AUCs of p-tau217Janss, p-tau181ADx and p-tau181WashU (AUCrange 0.835-0.872; Pdiff > 0.09), but higher compared with AUC of p-tau231UGOT, p-tau181Lilly, p-tau181UGOT, p-tau181Fuji and p-tau181Splex (AUCrange 0.642-0.813; Pdiff ≤ 0.029). Correlations between plasma and CSF values were strongest for p-tau217WashU (R = 0.891) followed by p-tau217Lilly (R = 0.755; Pdiff = 0.003 versus p-tau217WashU) and weak to moderate for the rest of the p-tau biomarkers (Rrange 0.320-0.669). In conclusion, our findings suggest that among all tested plasma p-tau assays, mass spectrometry-based measures of p-tau217 perform best when identifying mild cognitive impairment patients with abnormal brain Aβ or those who will subsequently progress to Alzheimer's dementia. Several other assays (p-tau217Lilly, p-tau217Janss, p-tau181ADx and p-tau181WashU) showed relatively high and consistent accuracy across both outcomes. The results further indicate that the highest performing assays have performance metrics that rival the gold standards of Aβ-PET and CSF. If further validated, our findings will have significant impacts in diagnosis, screening and treatment for Alzheimer's dementia in the future.

Janelidze S ，Bali D ，Ashton NJ ，Barthélemy NR ，Vanbrabant J ，Stoops E ，Vanmechelen E ，He Y ，Dolado AO ，Triana-Baltzer G ，Pontecorvo MJ ，Zetterberg H ，Kolb H ，Vandijck M ，Blennow K ，Bateman RJ ，Hansson O ... -  《-》

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.

Mendes AJ ，Ribaldi F ，Lathuiliere A ，Ashton NJ ，Janelidze S ，Zetterberg H ，Scheffler M ，Assal F ，Garibotto V ，Blennow K ，Hansson O ，Frisoni GB ... -  《-》

Plasma phosphorylated tau 217 and phosphorylated tau 181 as biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a retrospective diagnostic performance study.

Plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (p-tau217) and plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau181) are associated with Alzheimer's disease tau pathology. We compared the diagnostic value of both biomarkers in cognitively unimpaired participants and patients with a clinical diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease syndromes, or frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) syndromes. In this retrospective multicohort diagnostic performance study, we analysed plasma samples, obtained from patients aged 18-99 years old who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (Alzheimer's disease dementia, logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia, or posterior cortical atrophy), FTLD syndromes (corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia, or semantic variant primary progressive aphasia), or mild cognitive impairment; the participants were from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA, USA, and the Advancing Research and Treatment for Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Consortium (ARTFL; 17 sites in the USA and two in Canada). Participants from both cohorts were carefully characterised, including assessments of CSF p-tau181, amyloid-PET or tau-PET (or both), and clinical and cognitive evaluations. Plasma p-tau181 and p-tau217 were measured using electrochemiluminescence-based assays, which differed only in the biotinylated antibody epitope specificity. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to determine diagnostic accuracy of both plasma markers using clinical diagnosis, neuropathological findings, and amyloid-PET and tau-PET measures as gold standards. Difference between two area under the curve (AUC) analyses were tested with the Delong test. Data were collected from 593 participants (443 from UCSF and 150 from ARTFL, mean age 64 years [SD 13], 294 [50%] women) between July 1 and Nov 30, 2020. Plasma p-tau217 and p-tau181 were correlated (r=0·90, p<0·0001). Both p-tau217 and p-tau181 concentrations were increased in people with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (n=75, mean age 65 years [SD 10]) relative to cognitively unimpaired controls (n=118, mean age 61 years [SD 18]; AUC=0·98 [95% CI 0·95-1·00] for p-tau217, AUC=0·97 [0·94-0·99] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·31) and in pathology-confirmed Alzheimer's disease (n=15, mean age 73 years [SD 12]) versus pathologically confirmed FTLD (n=68, mean age 67 years [SD 8]; AUC=0·96 [0·92-1·00] for p-tau217, AUC=0·91 [0·82-1·00] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·22). P-tau217 outperformed p-tau181 in differentiating patients with Alzheimer's disease syndromes (n=75) from those with FTLD syndromes (n=274, mean age 67 years [SD 9]; AUC=0·93 [0·91-0·96] for p-tau217, AUC=0·91 [0·88-0·94] for p-tau181; pdiff=0·01). P-tau217 was a stronger indicator of amyloid-PET positivity (n=146, AUC=0·91 [0·88-0·94]) than was p-tau181 (n=214, AUC=0·89 [0·86-0·93]; pdiff=0·049). Tau-PET binding in the temporal cortex was more strongly associated with p-tau217 than p-tau181 (r=0·80 vs r=0·72; pdiff<0·0001, n=230). Both p-tau217 and p-tau181 had excellent diagnostic performance for differentiating patients with Alzheimer's disease syndromes from other neurodegenerative disorders. There was some evidence in favour of p-tau217 compared with p-tau181 for differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease syndromes versus FTLD syndromes, as an indication of amyloid-PET-positivity, and for stronger correlations with tau-PET signal. Pending replication in independent, diverse, and older cohorts, plasma p-tau217 and p-tau181 could be useful screening tools to identify individuals with underlying amyloid and Alzheimer's disease tau pathology. US National Institutes of Health, State of California Department of Health Services, Rainwater Charitable Foundation, Michael J Fox foundation, Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, Alzheimer's Association.

Thijssen EH ，La Joie R ，Strom A ，Fonseca C ，Iaccarino L ，Wolf A ，Spina S ，Allen IE ，Cobigo Y ，Heuer H ，VandeVrede L ，Proctor NK ，Lago AL ，Baker S ，Sivasankaran R ，Kieloch A ，Kinhikar A ，Yu L ，Valentin MA ，Jeromin A ，Zetterberg H ，Hansson O ，Mattsson-Carlgren N ，Graham D ，Blennow K ，Kramer JH ，Grinberg LT ，Seeley WW ，Rosen H ，Boeve BF ，Miller BL ，Teunissen CE ，Rabinovici GD ，Rojas JC ，Dage JL ，Boxer AL ，Advancing Research and Treatment for Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration investigators ... -  《-》

Discriminative Accuracy of Plasma Phospho-tau217 for Alzheimer Disease vs Other Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Palmqvist S ，Janelidze S ，Quiroz YT ，Zetterberg H ，Lopera F ，Stomrud E ，Su Y ，Chen Y ，Serrano GE ，Leuzy A ，Mattsson-Carlgren N ，Strandberg O ，Smith R ，Villegas A ，Sepulveda-Falla D ，Chai X ，Proctor NK ，Beach TG ，Blennow K ，Dage JL ，Reiman EM ，Hansson O ... -  《-》