Phospho-tau/total tau ratio in cerebrospinal fluid discriminates creutzfeldt–jakob disease from other dementias

ABSTRACT Early clinical symptoms of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) may overlap with other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal

degeneration (FTD). On entering an era in which pharmaceutical treatment of CJD occurs, reliable diagnostic markers like immunodetection of 14–3–3 proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

are required. However, false negative results in autopsy-proven, sporadic CJD cases, as well as false positive results in several other disorders including AD and FTD showing high CSF tau

protein levels, limit the potential of this marker. Due to neuronal lysis the cytosolic fraction of total tau containing phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated isoforms is partially liberated

into the CSF. Since hyperphosphorylation of tau may specifically occur in neurodegenerative diseases associated with neurofibrillary changes, we hypothesized that the phospho-tau

(P-tau)/total tau ratio in CSF may be a useful marker to discriminate CJD from other neurodegenerative disorders. The P-tau/total tau ratio discriminated patients with CJD from all other

neuro-degenerative disorders including patients with AD and FTD without any overlap. Although the results have to be confirmed in a larger sample, the preliminary data suggest that

simultaneous measurement of total tau and P-tau in CSF may be useful to identify patients with CJD. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription

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Neurochemistry and Neurogenetics Laboratory, Technische Universität München, Germany M Riemenschneider * Institute of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Technische Universität München,

Germany S Wagenpfeil * Innogenetics NV, Ghent, Belgium H Vanderstichele & E Vanmechelen * Department of Neurology, Universität Göttingen, Germany M Otto * Department of Psychiatry,

Universität Göttingen, Germany J Wiltfang * Institute of Neuropathology, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München, Germany H Kretzschmar * Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,

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Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to M Riemenschneider. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Riemenschneider, M., Wagenpfeil,

S., Vanderstichele, H. _et al._ Phospho-tau/total tau ratio in cerebrospinal fluid discriminates Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease from other dementias. _Mol Psychiatry_ 8, 343–347 (2003).

https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001220 Download citation * Received: 01 March 2002 * Revised: 29 April 2002 * Accepted: 10 June 2002 * Published: 27 March 2003 * Issue Date: March 2003 * DOI:

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currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative KEYWORDS * tau * phospho-tau * cerebrospinal fluid * Alzheimer *

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease * frontotemporal degeneration