Marc Suárez-Calvet, MD, PhD, Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Barcelona, Spain, discusses the value of blood phosphorylated tau (p-tau) biomarkers in a symptomatic and non-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) population. In a recent study looking at how plasma biomarkers associate with cognitive change, some symptomatic patients were in later stages of dementia, whereas others were in the earlier stages of subjective cognitive decline or mild cognitive impairment. The p-tau biomarkers effectively predicted cognitive decline in all the symptomatic groups. However, blood p-tau has also been studied in cognitively unimpaired individuals who are amyloid positive as measured in cerebrospinal fluid or by amyloid PET. The observations suggest that some p-tau biomarkers are already increased in the preclinical stage of AD. Future investigations plan on comparing the different assays and the different phosphorylation sites, since it is likely that different assays and phosphorylations perform differently across the AD continuum. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
