Annals of neurology: Plasma pTau181 is elevated in ALS

Emerging plasma-based biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases address the need for inexpensive, low-invasive, and accurate diagnostic tools

Figure 1: Paper cover image

Likewise, plasma p-tau181 was highly correlated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) p-tau181 concentrations in AD patients, further supporting its reliability as a marker of brain alterations in AD

Here, Katheryn AQ Cousins ​​et al.

Plasma p-tau181 in ALS patients has not been studied before, however, they found elevated plasma p-tau181, in contrast to the consistently low CSF p-tau181 concentrations observed in ALS

In the first part of the study, they compared analyte concentrations and their diagnostic accuracy in ALS, AD, and cognitively accessible healthy controls

Given our finding that plasma p-tau181 is highly elevated in ALS, the second part of this study focused on ALS

They performed a detailed analysis to explore whether plasma p-tau181 is associated with clinical or pathological features of ALS

To examine the specificity of the findings, plasma p-tau181 in ALS was compared with plasma NfL and CSF p-tau181

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Figure 2: The results of the paper

Fang patients were clinically or pathologically diagnosed with ALS (n=130) or AD (n=79), or healthy non-impaired controls (n=26)

Plasma p-tau181 in ALS was higher than that in controls (W=2600, p=0.

In ALS, elevated plasma p-tau181 was associated with signs of LMN in the neck (W=827, p=0.

In support of the LMN findings, plasma p-tau181 was associated with neuronal loss in the spinal cord (rho=0.

They found strong evidence that plasma p-tau181 is elevated in ALS and may be a novel specific marker of LMN dysfunction