# Cerebrospinal fluid p-tau217 performs better than p-tau181 as a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease

Article · Janelidze S, Stomrud E, Smith R, Palmqvist S, Mattsson N, Airey DC, Proctor NK, Chai X, Shcherbinin S, Sims JR, Triana-Baltzer G, Theunis C, Slemmon R, Mercken M, Kolb H, Dage JL, Hansson O

- Archive id: doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15436-0
- Published: 2020-04-03
- Venue: Nature communications
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15436-0
- PMID: 32246036
- PMCID: PMC7125218
- Citations: 388
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15436-0
- PDF: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7125218/pdf
- Provenance: europepmc

## Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) p-tau181 (tau phosphorylated at threonine 181) is an established biomarker of Alzheimer's disease (AD), reflecting abnormal tau metabolism in the brain. Here we investigate the performance of CSF p-tau217 as a biomarker of AD in comparison to p-tau181. In the Swedish BioFINDER cohort (n = 194), p-tau217 shows stronger correlations with the tau positron emission tomography (PET) tracer \[ 18 F\]flortaucipir, and more accurately identifies individuals with abnormally increased \[ 18 F\]flortaucipir retention. Furthermore, longitudinal increases in p-tau217 are higher compared to p-tau181 and better correlate with \[ 18 F\]flortaucipir uptake. P-tau217 correlates better than p-tau181 with CSF and PET measures of neocortical amyloid-β burden and more accurately distinguishes AD dementia from non-AD neurodegenerative disorders. Higher correlations between p-tau217 and \[ 18 F\]flortaucipir are corroborated in an independent EXPEDITION3 trial cohort (n = 32). The main results are validated using a different p-tau217 immunoassay. These findings suggest that p-tau217 might be more useful than p-tau181 in the diagnostic work up of AD.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)._

Topics: [Alzheimer's, Parkinson's & Neurodegeneration](https://space-kitty.com/topics/neurodegeneration)

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