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Large inter- and intra-case variability of first generation tau PET ligand binding in neurodegenerative dementias.

ABSTRACT: Imaging of pathological tau with positron emission tomography (PET) has the potential to allow early diagnosis of the dementias and monitoring of disease progression, including assessment of therapeutic interventions, in vivo. The first generation of tau PET tracers, including the carbazole flortaucipir and the 2-arylquinolines of the THK series, are now used in clinical research; however, concerns have been raised about off-target binding and low sensitivity.With the aim to determine the nature of tau pathology depicted by structurally distinct tau ligands we carried out a microscopic neuropathological evaluation in post-mortem human brain tissue of cases with primary and secondary tauopathies. Carbazole and 2-arylquinoline binding was only observed in cases with Alzheimer's disease and one case with frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 exhibiting a R406W MAPT mutation. In end stage Alzheimer's disease cases, fluorescent imaging with the carbazole T726 and the 2-arylquinoline THK-5117 revealed high inter- and intra-case variability of tracer binding, and this was corroborated by quantitative phosphorimaging with the PET tracer [18F]THK-5117. Microscopic analysis of the pathological inclusions revealed that the fluorescent tracers preferentially bind to premature tau aggregates. Whilst T726 binding was limited to neuronal tau, THK-5117 additionally depicted neuritic tau. Neither tracer depicted tau in pre-symptomatic disease.Our results highlight limitations of the first generation of tau PET tracers, in particular lack of correlation between pathological tau load and tracer binding, limited sensitivity to tau in early disease, and high variability in tracer binding between and within cases. Concerns remain that these limitations may also affect the next generation tracers as they target the same high affinity binding site. Therefore, it is crucial to assess inter- and intra-subject correlation of tracer binding with pathological tau load in post-mortem tissue studies, and to rigorously assess novel tau PET tracers before translation into clinical studies.

SUBMITTER: Wren MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5928586 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Large inter- and intra-case variability of first generation tau PET ligand binding in neurodegenerative dementias.

Wren Melissa C MC Lashley Tammaryn T Årstad Erik E Sander Kerstin K

Acta neuropathologica communications 20180501 1

Imaging of pathological tau with positron emission tomography (PET) has the potential to allow early diagnosis of the dementias and monitoring of disease progression, including assessment of therapeutic interventions, in vivo. The first generation of tau PET tracers, including the carbazole flortaucipir and the 2-arylquinolines of the THK series, are now used in clinical research; however, concerns have been raised about off-target binding and low sensitivity.With the aim to determine the nature ...[more]

PMID: 29716656

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Project description:SEE SARAZIN ET AL DOI101093/BRAIN/AWW041 FOR A SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY ON THIS ARTICLE: The advent of the positron emission tomography tracer (18)F-AV1451 provides the unique opportunity to visualize the regional distribution of tau pathology in the living human brain. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that tau pathology is closely linked to symptomatology and patterns of glucose hypometabolism in Alzheimer's disease, in contrast to the more diffuse distribution of amyloid-β pathology. We included 20 patients meeting criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease dementia or mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease, presenting with a variety of clinical phenotypes, and 15 amyloid-β-negative cognitively normal individuals, who underwent (18)F-AV1451 (tau), (11)C-PiB (amyloid-β) and (18)F-FDG (glucose metabolism) positron emission tomography, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping and neuropsychological testing. Voxel-wise contrasts against controls (at P < 0.05 family-wise error corrected) showed that (18)F-AV1451 and (18)F-FDG patterns in patients with posterior cortical atrophy ('visual variant of Alzheimer's disease', n = 7) specifically targeted the clinically affected posterior brain regions, while (11)C-PiB bound diffusely throughout the neocortex. Patients with an amnestic-predominant presentation (n = 5) showed highest (18)F-AV1451 retention in medial temporal and lateral temporoparietal regions. Patients with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia ('language variant of Alzheimer's disease', n = 5) demonstrated asymmetric left greater than right hemisphere (18)F-AV1451 uptake in three of five patients. Across 30 FreeSurfer-defined regions of interest in 16 Alzheimer's disease patients with all three positron emission tomography scans available, there was a strong negative association between (18)F-AV1451 and (18)F-FDG uptake (Pearson's r = -0.49 ± 0.07, P < 0.001) and less pronounced positive associations between (11)C-PiB and (18)F-FDG (Pearson's r = 0.16 ± 0.09, P < 0.001) and (18)F-AV1451 and (11)C-PiB (Pearson's r = 0.18 ± 0.09, P < 0.001). Voxel-wise linear regressions thresholded at P < 0.05 (uncorrected) showed that, across all patients, younger age was associated with greater (18)F-AV1451 uptake in wide regions of the neocortex, while older age was associated with increased (18)F-AV1451 in the medial temporal lobe. APOE ϵ4 carriers showed greater temporal and parietal (18)F-AV1451 uptake than non-carriers. Finally, worse performance on domain-specific neuropsychological tests was associated with greater (18)F-AV1451 uptake in key regions implicated in memory (medial temporal lobes), visuospatial function (occipital, right temporoparietal cortex) and language (left > right temporoparietal cortex). In conclusion, tau imaging-contrary to amyloid-β imaging-shows a strong regional association with clinical and anatomical heterogeneity in Alzheimer's disease. Although preliminary, these results are consistent with and expand upon findings from post-mortem, animal and cerebrospinal fluid studies, and suggest that the pathological aggregation of tau is closely linked to patterns of neurodegeneration and clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease.

Dataset Information

Large inter- and intra-case variability of first generation tau PET ligand binding in neurodegenerative dementias.

Publications

Large inter- and intra-case variability of first generation tau PET ligand binding in neurodegenerative dementias.

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