Increased tau in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

doi:10.1016/S0304-3940(98)00904-5

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 259, Issue 2, 8 January 1999, Pages 133-135

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(98)00904-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of tau protein were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay which measures both normal and hyperphosphorylated tau. Levels of CSF tau were measured in 17 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 23 patients with frontotemporal dementia, and were compared to age-matched healthy controls. The CSF tau concentration in control subjects was 198±49 pg/ml and no relationship was found between age and CSF tau concentrations in these subjects. CSF tau concentrations were significantly raised in patients with both Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia when compared to healthy controls (802±381 pg/ml, P<0.001; 612±382 pg/ml, P<0.05, respectively). In neither disease did CSF tau correlate with disease severity as assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination score (MMSE). This study shows that CSF tau is significantly raised in patients with frontotemporal dementia.

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pT217 has also been detected in the blood plasma and shows promising and exciting results to be used as a new biomarker to test for preclinical stage AD (Palmqvist et al., 2020). When considering other tauopathies, such as FTD-17, there are discrepancies in the literature, with some studies reporting an elevation in CSF tau (Green et al., 1999), whilst others show no elevation in levels of tau in the CSF, but rather a possible increase in ISF tau (Grossman et al., 2005), potentially due to the nature of FTD being remote from ventricular CSF spaces in early stages of degeneration (Riemenschneider et al., 2002). Although this discrepancy suggests variability in CSF levels of tau, it is evident that tau can be secreted by neurons and found within the extracellular space, in either the ISF or CSF, under both normal physiological conditions and in disease states.
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As to the T-tau, a moderate to marked increase of CSF T-tau in AD or MCI that later progresses to AD with dementia has been found in numerous studies (Blennow & Hampel, 2003). However, high CSF T-tau levels will be found in a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease and some cases of frontotemporal dementia, proving that CSF T-tau is not specific for AD(Green, Harvey, Thompson, & Rossor, 1999; Otto et al., 1997). The specificity of CSF P-tau to differentiate AD from other dementias seems to be higher than T-tau; studies suggest that p-tau in CSF is not simply a marker for neuronal degeneration, but that it specifically reflects the phosphorylation state of tau and thus possibly the formation of tangles in brain of AD patients.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is becoming a threat to aging population all over the world. The pathogenic process of AD is likely initiated many years before clinical onset, thus biomarkers for AD diagnosis are critical for the prevention and therapy for the disease at the early stage in order to reduce the global burden brought by the disease. Saliva is treated as a potential alternative and universal diagnostic fluid that can be collected noninvasively by participants with moderate training and without side effects. Several potential salivary biomarkers, which might prove to be significant diagnostic tools in AD, have been researched. We address here the present and the future of these salivary biological biomarkers for AD.
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Cognition can be defined as the mental processes involved in acquiring and processing information that are necessary for everyday living; it enables the individual to solve problems, make plans, and is not equivalent to intelligence. Postoperative impairment in cognitive and neurological functions can be categorized into three distinct clinical conditions: postoperative delirium that can appear hours/days after the procedure, persistent postoperative cognitive decline can last up to months, and postoperative chronic neurocognitive disorders that lead to a permanent cognitive impairment as in Alzheimer and dementia.
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have been increasingly studied for dementia diagnosis, however the accuracy to distinguish between different forms of dementia is still unsatisfactory. In this study, the added value of another CSF Aβ-peptide (Aβ40), along with the core CSF markers t-Tau, p-Tau, and Aβ42, in the discrimination between two large dementia groups of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD; n = 107), Alzheimer's Disease (AD; n = 107) and non-demented subjects (n = 33) was evaluated.
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Increased tau in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Biochem. Biophys Res. Commun.

Neurobiol. Aging

J. Psychiatr. Res.

Trends Neurol. Sci.

Trends Neurosci.

Cerebrospinal fluid tau protein as a biochemical marker for Alzheimer's disease: a community based follow up study

J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry

Tau in cerebrospinal fluid: a potential diagnostic marker in Alzheimer's disease

Ann. Neurol.

Tau protein in cerebrospinal fluid: a biochemical marker for axonal degeneration in Alzheimer's disease?

Mol. Chem. Neuropathol.

Assessment of CSF levels of tau protein in mildly demented patients with Alzheimer's disease

Neurology

Association of missense and 5′-splice-site mutations in tau with the inherited dementia FTDP-17

Nature