BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

The tau of imaging

What live imaging of tau and β-amyloid shows in AD

March 24, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Two studies have for the first time combined live imaging of tau and β-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and shown that while tau levels correlate more strongly with memory loss and cognitive decline, the spread of tau through the brain depends on β-amyloid deposition, suggesting that a previously unappreciated interaction between the pathways drives AD.

While studies of β-amyloid have dominated the AD field for over 20 years, and PET imaging of β-amyloid has been possible for almost 15 years, a cluster of disappointing clinical trials and a failure of imaging studies to predict disease status has shifted more focus to investigating microtubule-associated protein τ (tau; MAPT; FTDP-17) as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target - a challenge recently made easier by the development of a tau-selective imaging probe. ...