Cristiani Costanza Maria, Scaramuzzino Luana, Parrotta Elvira Immacolata, Cuda Giovanni, Quattrone Aldo, Quattrone Andrea
Neuroscience Research Center, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University "Magna Graecia", 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University "Magna Graecia", 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2024 Dec 5;14(23):2746. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14232746.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a tauopathy showing a marked symptoms overlap with Parkinson's Disease (PD). PSP pathology suggests that tau protein might represent a valuable biomarker to distinguish between the two diseases. Here, we investigated the presence and diagnostic value of six different tau species (total tau, 4R-tau isoform, tau aggregates, p-tau202, p-tau231 and p-tau396) in serum from 13 PSP and 13 PD patients and 12 healthy controls (HCs).
ELISA commercial kits were employed to assess all the tau species except for t-tau, which was assessed by a single molecule array (SIMOA)-based commercial kit. Possible correlations between tau species and biological and clinical features of our cohorts were also evaluated.
Among the six tau species tested, only p-tau396 was detectable in serum. Concentration of p-tau396 was significantly higher in both PSP and PD groups compared to HC, but PSP and PD patients showed largely overlapping values. Moreover, serum concentration of p-tau396 strongly correlated with disease severity in PSP and not in PD.
Overall, we identified serum p-tau396 as the most expressed phosphorylated tau species in serum and as a potential tool for assessing PSP clinical staging. Moreover, we demonstrated that other p-tau species may be present at too low concentrations in serum to be detected by ELISA, suggesting that future work should focus on other biological matrices.
背景/目的：进行性核上性麻痹（PSP）是一种tau蛋白病，其症状与帕金森病（PD）有明显重叠。PSP病理学表明，tau蛋白可能是区分这两种疾病的重要生物标志物。在此，我们研究了13例PSP患者、13例PD患者和12名健康对照者（HCs）血清中六种不同tau蛋白种类（总tau蛋白、4R-tau异构体、tau蛋白聚集体、p-tau202、p-tau231和p-tau396）的存在情况及其诊断价值。
采用ELISA商用试剂盒评估除总tau蛋白（t-tau）外的所有tau蛋白种类，t-tau通过基于单分子阵列（SIMOA）的商用试剂盒进行评估。还评估了tau蛋白种类与我们队列的生物学和临床特征之间的可能相关性。
在测试的六种tau蛋白种类中，血清中仅可检测到p-tau396。与HC相比，PSP组和PD组的p-tau396浓度均显著更高，但PSP患者和PD患者的值有很大重叠。此外，PSP患者血清中p-tau396的浓度与疾病严重程度密切相关，而在PD患者中则无此相关性。
总体而言，我们确定血清p-tau396是血清中表达最丰富的磷酸化tau蛋白种类，也是评估PSP临床分期的潜在工具。此外，我们证明其他p-tau蛋白种类在血清中的浓度可能过低，无法通过ELISA检测到，这表明未来的研究应聚焦于其他生物基质。
