ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1668512
This article is part of the Research TopicAI-Enhanced Biomarkers: Revolutionizing Early Detection and Precision Medicine in NeurodegenerationView all 4 articles
The Exploration of using plasma biomarkers of p-tau217 and p-tau181 for screening Alzheimer's disease in very elderly people
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Geriatric Hospital, Beijing, China
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ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD), such as phosphorylated tau (p-tau181, p-tau217) and amyloid beta (Aβ), have the potential to serve as screening tools for probable AD in the elderly population. METHODS: AD screening (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] and Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA]) was conducted among very elderly individuals residing in a nursing community and a geriatric hospital. Based on cognitive evaluation, participants were categorized into two groups: cognitively normal (n = 62) and probable AD (n = 78). Plasma concentrations of Aβ42, Aβ40, p-tau181, p-tau217, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were measured using the Single Molecule Array (Simoa) platform. Group comparisons of plasma biomarker levels were performed, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were conducted for each biomarker relative to AD diagnosis. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed in plasma p-tau181, p-tau217, and GFAP levels between the cognitively normal and probable AD groups (p < 0.01). In contrast, Aβ42, Aβ40, and the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio showed no significant differences (p > 0.01). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.886 for p-tau181, 0.655 for p-tau217, and 0.869 for GFAP. DISCUSSION: Plasma biomarkers p-tau181, p-tau217, and GFAP demonstrate clinical utility in distinguishing AD from normal cognition, suggesting that blood-based testing may serve as a feasible screening tool for early identification of AD in very elderly populations.
Keywords: blood-based biomarkers, Single molecule array (Simoa), P-tau181, p-tau217, GFAP
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zi, Yan, Ma, zhang, liu, zhao and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhang Shou Zi, lanczsz@126.com
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