Home › Research › Biomarkers
Donanemab treatment effect by baseline tau burden and disease severity: Observations from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 trial
Lars L Raket, Ming Lu, Cynthia D Evans, Jennifer A Zimmer, JonDavid Sparks, Emily C Collins, Sergey Shcherbinin, Hong Wang et al.. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2026-06
Topic: Drug trials: efficacy and safety
Donanemab-mediated slowing of disease progression occurred across baseline tau PET and plasma P-tau217 levels. Participants with lower baseline tau PET and P-tau217 showed greater slowing with donanemab versus placebo. Modeling CDR-SB scores indicated that earlier treatment (at the 25th percentile of baseline Predicted disease progression) delayed disease progression by 60% over 76 weeks, compared to 33% and 17% at the 50th and 75th percentiles. Donanemab benefited participants with early symptomatic AD across clinical and pathological severities, with the greatest slowing in those treated earlier. CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT04437511.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
APA 7th
Raket, L. L., Lu, M., Evans, C. D., Zimmer, J. A., Sparks, J., Collins, E. C., et al. (2026). Donanemab treatment effect by baseline tau burden and disease severity: Observations from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 trial. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.71577
Vancouver
Raket LL, Lu M, Evans CD, Zimmer JA, Sparks J, Collins EC, et al. Donanemab treatment effect by baseline tau burden and disease severity: Observations from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 trial. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 2026. doi:10.1002/alz.71577. PMID: 42273802.
BibTeX
@article{raket2026-42273802,
author = {Raket, Lars L and Lu, Ming and Evans, Cynthia D and Zimmer, Jennifer A and Sparks, JonDavid and Collins, Emily C and Shcherbinin, Sergey and Wang, Hong and others},
title = {{Donanemab treatment effect by baseline tau burden and disease severity: Observations from the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 trial}},
journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1002/alz.71577},
pmid = {42273802},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.71577}
}
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
Key findings
- Donanemab-mediated slowing of disease progression occurred across baseline tau PET and plasma P-tau217 levels.
- Participants with lower baseline tau PET and P-tau217 showed greater slowing with donanemab versus placebo.
- Modeling CDR-SB scores indicated that earlier treatment (at the 25th percentile of baseline Predicted disease progression) delayed disease progression by 60% over 76 weeks, compared to 33% and 17% at the 50th and 75th percentiles.
- Donanemab benefited participants with early symptomatic AD across clinical and pathological severities, with the greatest slowing in those treated earlier.
- CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT04437511.
New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Blood tests & biomarkers →
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 75/100
Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a large phase 3 trial. Scored zero for sample size and effect reported because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and free to read, so those were left out: it earned 44 of the 59 points we could judge it on, which is 75 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 11 / 12 | A large phase 3 trial (from PubMed type “Clinical Trial, Phase III”) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (pubmed indexes it as a clinical or observational study) |
| Randomised / blinded | 1 / 2 | Randomised (as stated in the record) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | PubMed indexes it as a multicentre study |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 42273802) |
| Free to read | — / 2 | Access not recorded — left out of this score |
| Points | 44 / 59 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 44 of the 59 points we could judge it on is 75 out of 100. |
| Total | 75 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Free copy unknown: no free-copy check has an answer for this record yet. That does not mean it is paywalled.
Related studies in Biomarkers
Also tagged “aducanumab”
332 studies in the library carry the topic tag “aducanumab”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 332 tagged studies.