In Alzheimer's disease, post-mortem studies have shown that the first cortical site where neurofibrillary tangles appear is the transentorhinal region, a subregion within the medial temporal lobe that largely overlaps with Brodmann area 35, and the entorhinal cortex. 5 key findings →
Participants: 215
Evidence: low
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Tau gene has been consistently associated with the risk of Parkinson disease in recent genome wide association studies. 4 key findings →
Evidence: moderate
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The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the performance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) beta amyloid 42 (Aβ42), total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) as potential diagnostic biomarkers for idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) and to assess their utility indistinguishing patients with iNPH from those with Alzheimer disease (AD) and healthy normal controls. 4 key findings →
Design: systematic review
Participants: 413
Evidence: high
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62/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 62 out of 100.
·
JAMA Neurology
·
2025-07-07
This study included 887 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 887
Evidence: moderate
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62/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 62 out of 100.
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Neuron
·
2016-03-01
Researchers used a tau PET agent to examine tau retention patterns in cognitively normal older people and compared them with young controls and Alzheimer's disease patients. 3 key findings →
Evidence: low
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62/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 62 out of 100.
·
JAMA neurology
·
2020-11-01
Of 60 patients with PSP, 40 (66.7%) had RS (22 men [55.0%]; mean [SD] age, 71 [6] years; mean [SD] PSP rating scale score, 38 [15]; score range, 13-71) and 20 (33.3%) had PSP-non-RS (11 men [55.0%]; mean [SD] age, 71 [9] years; mean [SD] PSP rating scale score, 24 [11]; score range, 11-41). 2 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 60
Evidence: low
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62/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 62 out of 100.
·
Nature medicine
·
2024-06-18
Minimally invasive biomarkers are urgently needed to detect molecular pathology in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 1 key finding →
Participants: 704
Evidence: moderate
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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh developed a new plasma p-tau217 test (using a different antibody than existing commercial tests) and validated it in 363 people, including some with genetic early-onset Alzheimer's mutations and community-dwelling older adults. 4 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 363
Evidence: moderate
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Tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in the presence of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques are required for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and closely track with cognitive impairment, yet cognitively normal aged individuals frequently exhibit NFTs arising from tau seed accumulation. 3 key findings →
Design: case-control
Participants: 38
Evidence: early
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
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Neurology
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2021-09-07
Although all p-tau variants increased across the AD continuum, p-tau217 Lilly 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). 2 key findings →
Participants: 334
Evidence: low
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These findings suggest that (18)F T807 PET could have value as a biomarker that reflects both the progression of AD tauopathy and the emergence of clinical impairment. 3 key findings →
Evidence: low
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In our training set, people with Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy, and dementia with Lewy bodies had lower CSF α-synuclein concentrations than patients with Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders. 1 key finding →
Design: cross-sectional
Evidence: moderate
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Blood-based AD biomarker concentrations are associated with pathological and clinical diagnoses and can predict future development of clinical AD, providing evidence that they can be incorporated into multi-ethnic, community-based studies. 3 key findings →
Evidence: low
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
JAMA neurology
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2023-05-01
In this study, females exhibited higher tau compared with age-matched males, particularly in the setting of elevated Aβ. 5 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Evidence: low
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
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Nature
·
2006-07-16
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common cause of dementia in people under the age of 65 years. 2 key findings →
Evidence: low
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
Nature
·
2018-08-29
The ordered assembly of tau protein into abnormal filamentous inclusions underlies many human neurodegenerative diseases 1 . 2 key findings →
Evidence: low
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
Neurology
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2002-08-01
In this longitudinal study of 77 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the authors analyzed whether levels of tau protein phosphorylated at threonine 231 (p-tau(231)) in CSF correlate with progression of cognitive decline. 1 key finding →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 77
Evidence: moderate
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
JAMA network open
·
2021-08-02
New technology is convenient for measuring blood total tau concentrations and provides a unique and increased opportunity for early intervention to slow cognitive decline. 4 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 1,159
Evidence: moderate
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Alzheimer's disease is characterized by β-amyloid plaques and tau tangles. 4 key findings →
Participants: 88
Evidence: moderate
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61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
JAMA Neurology
·
2025-12-15
A total of 365 participants (mean [SD] age, 75.4 [7.9] years; 192 female [52.6%]) in the ADNI tau-PET group and 524 participants (mean [SD] age, 77.1 [7.9] years; 268 male [51.1%]) in the ADNI p-tau217 group were selected from the 998 individuals who were Aβ+ in the ADNI cohort and used to generate tau-clinical mismatch models with 55.6% to 57.1% classified as canonical (CDR-SB commensurate to tau), 23.7% to 24.7% as resilient (CDR-SB tau). 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 365
Evidence: moderate
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Brain regions with higher synaptic density are associated with a higher 18F-AV-1451 binding in progressive supranuclear palsy/corticobasal degeneration, but this association diminishes with disease severity. 1 key finding →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 12
Evidence: moderate
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Researchers developed an adeno-associated virus-based model to study tau propagation from the entorhinal cortex to the dentate gyrus. 2 key findings →
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This study directly compared four different commercial/lab p-tau217 blood tests (Lumipulse, ALZpath, Johnson & Johnson, and NULISA) in 344 people from two community cohorts, most of whom were cognitively normal or had only mild changes. 4 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 344
Evidence: moderate
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It was not possible to demonstrate significant differences on the co-primary clinical endpoints (ADAS-cog 11 and ADCS-ADL 23 ) at 52 weeks due to symptomatic activity in the control arm. 5 key findings →
Design: phase-3-trial
Participants: 598
Evidence: null result
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60/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100.
·
Brain
·
2026-06-03
We found that ApoE4 did not facilitate amyloid-PET-associated ptau increases, suggesting that amyloid-related ptau secretion is not altered by ApoE4 carriage. 4 key findings →
Design: cohort
Participants: 401
Evidence: moderate
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How the 0–100 score works — and why some entries are capped
This is alzhub's own score. It is not an official metric, not an impact factor,
and no journal, publisher or ranking body endorses it. We built it so that a reader who is not a
scientist can tell a landmark trial from a conference abstract without having to already know the
difference. Every point comes from one of 20 components, all of them printed on the study itself,
so you can disagree with our arithmetic rather than having to trust the total.
- Journal tier up to 10 pts
- Journal's citation record up to 4 pts
- Study design up to 12 pts
- Strength of evidence up to 5 pts
- Peer-review validation up to 10 pts
- How recent up to 5 pts
- Sample size up to 4 pts
- Effect reported up to 3 pts
- Studied in people up to 3 pts
- Randomised / blinded up to 2 pts
- Times cited up to 7 pts
- Citations per year up to 5 pts
- Impact for its field and year up to 6 pts
- Cited by studies here up to 6 pts
- Still being cited up to 4 pts
- Senior author's track record up to 4 pts
- Institution's track record up to 3 pts
- Multi-centre collaboration up to 3 pts
- Indexed in PubMed up to 2 pts
- Free to read up to 2 pts
Journals are placed in ordered tiers, never given a numeric impact factor — we
could not verify current impact factors from a source we control, and an invented one would be
worse than none. Tier 1 is the top-tier general journals (NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA, Nature, Science,
Nature Medicine); tier 2 is the leading specialty journals; tier 3 is every other peer-reviewed
journal. A separate part scores how much the journal's own papers are cited, which tells the
tier-3 journals apart.
Two rules we don't bend. First, we never fill in a
missing value: if a record does not state a sample size or a design, that component scores
zero, and if we simply have no data for a part, such as a citation count, that part is left out and
the study is scored on the parts we could check. The study card says which. Second, anything that is not a peer-reviewed
article is capped at 16/100 and carries a warning chip — so a conference abstract or
a company press release can never outrank a peer-reviewed paper, no matter how good it looks.
We rank a rigorous null result — a good trial showing that something does not
work — above an early positive finding. Someone deciding whether to buy a supplement is served by
that, and the rigour is already counted by the design and journal components.
The score is computed from the published data alone and is
reproducible: the same file always yields the same numbers.
See the whole rubric drawn out →
— four charts covering all 27,380 studies: how the scores are spread and where the cap
bites, which of the 20 components the library is strong and weak on, which subjects rest on
stronger evidence, and what kinds of study each subject is actually built from.