Slowly progressive dementia caused by MAPT R406W mutations: longitudinal report on a new kindred and systematic...

The MAPT c.1216C > T (p.Arg406Trp; R406W) mutation is a known cause of frontotemporal dementia with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 tau with Alzheimer's disease-like clinical features.

We compiled clinical data from a new Swedish kindred with R406W mutation. Seven family members were followed longitudinally for up to 22 years. Radiological examinations were performed in six family members and neuropathological examinations in three. We systematically reviewed the literature and compiled clinical, radiological, and neuropathological data on 63 previously described R406W heterozygotes and 3 homozygotes.

For all cases combined, the median age of onset was 56 years and the median disease duration was 13 years. Memory impairment was the most frequent symptom, behavioral disturbance and language impairment were less common, and Parkinsonism was rare. Disease progression was most often slow. The most frequent clinical diagnosis was Alzheimer's disease. R406W homozygotes had an earlier age at onset and a higher frequency of behavioral symptoms and Parkinsonism than heterozygotes. In the new Swedish kindred, a consistent imaging finding was ventromedial temporal lobe atrophy, which was evident also in early disease stages as a widening of the collateral sulcus with ensuing atrophy of the parahippocampal gyrus. Unlike previously published R406W carriers, all three autopsied patients from the novel family showed neuropathological similarities with progressive supranuclear palsy, with predominant four-repeat (exon 10+) tau isoform (4R) tauopathy and neurofibrillary tangles accentuated in the basal-medial temporal lobe. Amyloid-β pathology was absent.

Dominance of 4R over three-repeat (exon 10-) tau isoforms contrasts with earlier reports of R406W patients and was not sufficiently explained by the presence of H1/H2 haplotypes in two of the autopsied patients. R406W patients often show a long course of disease with marked memory deficits. Both our neuropathological results and our imaging findings revealed that the ventromedial temporal lobes were extensively affected in the disease. We suggest that this area may represent the point of origin of tau deposition in this disease with relatively isolated tauopathy.