2024-09-30 10:55:40
The discovery of biomarkers that allow us to reliably distinguish between neurodegenerative diseases helps for earlier and more accurate diagnosis, and, at the same time, serves as support for the design of new treatment strategies focused on regular medicine in such these pathologies.
Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by abnormal accumulation of microtubule-associated protein in neurons and glial cells. Primary and secondary tauopathies are generally differentiated based on the molecular composition of tau aggregates and the occurrence of other protein deposits, among other factors. At first, these are diseases associated with movement disorders, but with symptoms that can often be confused with those of Alzheimer’s disease, making an accurate diagnosis is difficult.
In order to overcome these obstacles, researchers at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital (LMU) in Munich (Germany) have found biomarkers that allow us to reliably distinguish between the two diseases, although only with data from a specific imaging technique called CT. positron emission tomography (PET).
“The newly developed diagnostic algorithm allows us to make a more accurate distinction between Alzheimer’s disease and primary tauopathies, facilitating earlier and more accurate diagnosis and supporting personalized treatment strategies.“, noted the first researcher, Prof. Matthias Brendel, executive director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and member of the SyNergy Cluster of Excellence.
In particular, the study, published in the journal ‘Alzheimer’s and Dementia’, shows that tau can be identified with the new tau PET detector even in the four tauopathies, but not in the cerebrospinal fluid, but in specific regions of the brain known as subcortical brain regions. Typically, in Alzheimer’s disease and the first 4 tauopathies, large pathological aggregates of tau protein are found in the brain. For decades, tau proteins in Alzheimer’s disease could be detected by analyzing the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
In addition, researchers have discovered new genes that point to the presence of 4-new tauopathy. “The diagnosis becomes more effective when we look at the combination of cerebrospinal fluid tests, new biomarkers and PET imaging in subcortical areas.“Professor said. Brendel.”“We can then identify a 4-repeat tauopathy with a high degree of certainty.”. “Currently, the primary 4-repeat tauopathies are diagnosed almost exclusively using clinical criteria, without specific biomarkers that allow a definitive diagnosis in patients.”according to the author’s lawyer Dr. Nicolai Franzmeier.
In conclusion, this study was able to demonstrate that the combination of disease-specific PET-tau binding pattern and p-tau status in cerebrospinal fluid can be used as a predictive algorithm that has a reliable biomarker to differentiate between EA and 4RT. Furthermore, we demonstrate that early-phase tau-PET and, to a lesser extent, cerebrospinal fluid t-tau status can be used as supportive biomarkers of neuronal damage for the diagnosis of AD. LDB(SyM)
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