Estimation of Tau and Phosphorylated Tau181 in Serum of Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients

PLoS One. 2016 Jul 26;11(7):e0159099. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159099. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The elevated level of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Tau and phosphorylated Tau181 (p-Tau181) proteins are well established hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Elevated level of p-Tau181 can differentiate AD from other neurodegenerative disease. However, the expression level of these proteins in serum of AD patient is not well set up. This study sought to evaluate the level of Tau and p-Tau181 in serum of AD, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients for an alternative approach to establish protein-based markers by convenient way. Blood samples were collected from 39 AD patients, 37 MCI patients and 37 elderly individuals as controls. The levels of Tau and p-Tau181 in the serum of the different groups were measured by label free real time Surface Plasmon Resonance technology by using specific antibodies, and were further confirmed by the conventional western blot method. An appropriate statistical analysis, including Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), was performed. The concentrations of serum Tau and p-Tau181 were significantly higher (p<0.00001) in AD (Tau; 47.49±9.00ng/μL, p-Tau181; 0.161±0.04 ng/μL) compared to MCI (Tau; 39.26±7.78 ng/μL, p-Tau181; 0.135±0.02 ng/μL) and were further higher compared to elderly controls (Tau; 34.92±6.58 ng/μL, p-Tau181; 0.122±0.01 ng/ μL). A significant (p<0.0001) downhill correlation was found between Tau as well as p-Tau181 levels with HMSE and MoCA score. This study for the first time reports the concentration of Tau and p-Tau181 in serum of AD and MCI patients. The cutoff values of Tau and p-Tau181 of AD and MCI patients with sensitivity and specificity reveal that serum level of these proteins can be used as a predictive marker for AD and MCI.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / blood*
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Biomarkers
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / blood*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / diagnosis
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Phosphoproteins / blood
  • Phosphorylation
  • ROC Curve
  • Risk Factors
  • tau Proteins / blood*

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Phosphoproteins
  • tau Proteins

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India, for providing the institute fellowship of Shashank Shekhar. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.