Biomarkers of tau phosphorylation state are associated with the clinical course of multiple sclerosis

Mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS) remain poorly understood but mostly implicate molecular pathways that are not unique to MS. Recently detected tau seeding activity in MS brain tissues corroborates previous neuropathological reports of hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) accumulation in secondary and primary progressive MS (PPMS). We aimed to investigate whether aberrant tau phosphorylation can be detected in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients by using novel ultrasensitive immunoassays for different p-tau biomarkers.

CSF samples of patients with MS (n = 55) and non-inflammatory neurological disorders (NIND, n = 31) were analysed with in-house Single molecule array (Simoa) assays targeting different tau phosphorylation sites (p-tau181, p-tau212, p-tau217 and p-tau231). Additionally, neurofilament light (NFL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were measured with a multiplexed Simoa assay. Patients were diagnosed with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS, n = 10), relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS, n = 21) and PPMS (n = 24) according to the 2017 McDonald criteria and had MRI, EDSS and basic CSF analysis performed at the time of diagnosis.

Patients with progressive disease course had between 1.4-fold (p-tau217) and 2.2-fold (p-tau212) higher p-tau levels than relapsing MS patients (PPMS compared with CIS + RRMS, p < 0.001 for p-tau181, p-tau212, p-tau231 and p = 0.042 for p-tau217). P-tau biomarkers were associated with disease duration (ρ=0.466-0.622, p < 0.0001), age (ρ=0.318-0.485, p < 0.02, all but p-tau217) and EDSS at diagnosis and follow-up (ρ=0.309-0.440, p < 0.02). In addition, p-tau biomarkers correlated with GFAP (ρ=0.517-0.719, p ≤ 0.0001) but not with the albumin quotient, CSF cell count or NFL. Patients with higher MRI lesion load also had higher p-tau levels p ≤ 0.01 (<10 vs. ≥ 10 lesions, all p ≤ 0.01).

CSF concentrations of novel p-tau biomarkers point to a higher degree of tau phosphorylation in PPMS than in RRMS. Associations with age, disease duration and EDSS suggest this process increases with disease severity; however, replication of these results in larger cohorts is needed to further clarify the relevance of altered tau phosphorylation throughout the disease course in MS.