Home › Research › Laboratory science
Tau accumulation and its spatial progression across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum
St-Onge F, Chapleau M, Breitner JCS, Villeneuve S, Pichet Binette A, for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Brain Communications, 2024-02-07
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
This study tracked tau PET scans over time in over 800 people across the Alzheimer's spectrum and found that while tau broadly follows the classic 'Braak stage' spreading pattern, the exact regions affected vary a lot from person to person, especially as disease progresses. People with mild cognitive impairment showed the fastest spread of new tau-affected brain regions.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
APA 7th
St-Onge, F., Chapleau, M., Breitner, J. C. S., Villeneuve, S., Pichet Binette, A., & Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. (2024). Tau accumulation and its spatial progression across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. Brain Communications.
Vancouver
St-Onge F, Chapleau M, Breitner JCS, Villeneuve S, Pichet Binette A, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Tau accumulation and its spatial progression across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. Brain Communications. 2024. PMID: 38410618.
BibTeX
@article{stonge2024-f5f1c357,
author = {St-Onge, F. and Chapleau, M. and Breitner, J. C. S. and Villeneuve, S. and Pichet Binette, A. and {Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative}},
title = {{Tau accumulation and its spatial progression across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum}},
journal = {Brain Communications},
year = {2024},
pmid = {38410618}
}
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. This record has no DOI, so the citation leaves it out. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
Key findings
- 832 participants, 1,370 tau-PET scans; over 91% of tau-positive participants matched the expected Braak staging order cross-sectionally
- Tau spread fastest in the MCI stage (2.5 newly abnormal regions/year) compared to cognitively unimpaired (0.97/year) and AD dementia (0.87/year)
- Individual overlap in exactly which regions were affected within a given Braak stage averaged only about 55%, rising to just 46% overlap in AD dementia
- A broader 'spatial extent' tau measure predicted executive function decline better than the traditional single temporal-lobe tau measure in MCI and AD dementia
Why it matters
Tau generally followed the expected Braak spreading order, but which exact regions were affected varied a lot between people, and tau spread fastest in the mild cognitive impairment stage. This suggests treatments aimed at tau may need to account for individual differences in where it spreads, especially early on.
Study details
- Study designcohort
- Participants832
- Effect sizeNewly abnormal tau regions accumulated at 2.5/year in MCI, 0.97/year in cognitively unimpaired, and 0.87/year in AD dementia; within-Braak-stage regional overlap across participants (Jaccard index) averaged 0.55 (0.74 in cognitively unimpaired, 0.46 in AD dementia)
- Evidence strengthModerate
Limitations
Observational; ADNI volunteers are generally healthier/more educated than the general population; substantial unexplained regional heterogeneity complicates the use of a single staging model; work was first posted as a medRxiv preprint before this peer-reviewed version.
How this study scored 65/100
Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a cohort study following people over time. Scored zero for randomised / blinded and indexed in PubMed 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, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record, multi-centre collaboration and free to read, so those were left out: it earned 40 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 65 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Brain Communications) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 7 / 12 | A cohort study following people over time |
| Strength of evidence | 3 / 5 | Rated “moderate” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 4 / 5 | 2024 — within 3 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 2 / 4 | 832 participants |
| Effect reported | 2 / 3 | Effect reported as a number, without an interval or test |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| 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 | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| 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 | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 0 / 2 | No PubMed ID and no DOI — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Free to read | — / 2 | Access not recorded — left out of this score |
| Points | 40 / 62 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 40 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 65 out of 100. |
| Total | 65 / 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 the library that share something with this one. The line above each title says what.
Related studies in Laboratory science
Also tagged “phosphorylated”
733 studies in the library carry the topic tag “phosphorylated”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 733 tagged studies.