Longitudinal study of cerebrospinal fluid levels of tau, Aβ1–40, and Aβ1–42(43) in Alzheimer's disease: A study in Japan

Abstract

To clarify the alterations of tau, amyloid β protein (Aβ) 1–40 and Aβ1–42(43) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that accompany normal aging and the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), CSF samples of 93 AD patients, 32 longitudinal subjects among these 93 AD patients, 33 patients with non‐AD dementia, 56 with other neurological diseases, and 54 normal control subjects from three independent institutes were analyzed by sensitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays. Although the tau levels increased with aging, a significant elevation of tau and a correlation between the tau levels and the clinical progression were observed in the AD patients. A significant decrease of the Aβ1–42(43) levels and a significant increase of the ratio of Aβ1–40 to Aβ1–42(43) were observed in the AD patients. The longitudinal AD study showed continuous low Aβ1–42(43) levels and an increase of the ratio of Aβ1–40 to Aβ1–42(43) before the onset of AD. These findings suggest that CSF tau may increase with the clinical progression of dementia and that the alteration of the CSF level of Aβ1–42(43) and the ratio of Aβ1–40 to Aβ1–42(43) may start at early stages in AD. The assays of CSF tau, Aβ1–40, and Aβ1–42(43) provided efficient diagnostic sensitivity (71%) and specificity (83%) by using the production of tau levels and the ratio of Aβ1–40 to Aβ1–42(43), and an improvement in sensitivity (to 91%) was obtained in the longitudinal evaluation.