CSF biomarker levels in early and late onset Alzheimer's disease

To compare CSF levels of beta-amyloid 1-42 (Abeta(1-42)), total tau (tau) and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (ptau-181) between AD patients and controls according to age.

248 AD patients (48% men) and 127 controls (51% men, 22 volunteers and 105 subjective complainers) underwent lumbar puncture. Both patients and controls were divided into a young (<65 years) and old (>or=65 years) group.

All three biomarkers showed main effects of diagnosis (p<0.001). There was an interaction between diagnosis and age for all three biomarkers (p<0.05), as old controls had lower Abeta(1-42) and higher (p)tau than young controls (Abeta(1-42) 699+/-250 versus 866+/-191pg/ml, tau 408+/-245 versus 243+/-102pg/ml, ptau-181 60+/-28 versus 42+/-15pg/ml), but there was no difference according to age among AD patients (Abeta(1-42) 451+/-178 versus 425+/-146pg/ml, tau 741+/-460 versus 798+/-467pg/ml, ptau-181 91+/-42 versus 91+/-41pg/ml).

We found that the older control group had lower Abeta(1-42) and higher (p)tau compared to the younger control group. This suggests that older individuals may have AD pathology, even in the absence of objective cognitive impairment.