Biomarkers

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a rapidly progressing 4-repeat tauopathy, presenting with clinically heterogeneous phenotypes. Currently, diagnoses are based solely on clinical criteria but reliable diagnostic classification remains particularly challenging at early stages. ¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET is an evolving neuroimaging biomarker to capture 4-repeat tau (4RT) deposits in vivo with clear diagnostic potential in research settings. To determine the added clinical value of ¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET in the diagnostic workup of PSP, we evaluated whether ¹⁸F-PI-2620-assessed 4RT positivity (i.e. using the basal ganglia as a target readout) predicts subsequent increases of diagnostic certainty for PSP, indicative of 4RT pathology driving clinical progression.

We collected monocentric longitudinal data at the LMU Hospital in Munich, from a non-randomized prospective cohort study between October 2018 and December 2024. Data collection included pre-PET visits with routine clinical classification following the MDS criteria. In addition, we performed ¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET with dichotomous visual read assessments of 4RT pathology by an expert reader and collected clinical follow-up data or autopsy information.

342 patients with a pre-PET differential diagnosis of PSP were referred to ¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET in clinical routine. Of those, 200 patients (61.5% male, mean±sd age 69.2±8.3 years) had a post-PET clinical follow-up between 12-24 months (mean±sd 17.1±4.2 months). 137 patients (68.5%) were rated 4RT-positive at baseline (Figure 1). The distribution of certainty of PSP diagnosis at baseline and at follow-up is displayed in Figure 2 (A&B: all PSP phenotypes; C&D: PSP-Richardson Syndrome [RS]; E&F: variant PSP subtypes). Change to a non-PSP diagnosis at follow-up occurred in 23.5%, identified by a negative baseline tau-PET in 95.5%. In contrast, 79% of tau-PET-positive patients with suggestive PSP progressed to a higher diagnostic certainty, 3% had histopathological confirmation of PSP diagnosis, 13% remained suggestive PSP, and 5% received a non-PSP diagnosis at follow-up.

¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET can successfully identify patients that progress along expected 4RT clinical spectra. This supports ¹⁸F-PI-2620 tau-PET as a 4RT biomarker, with the potential to facilitate early biomarker-based diagnosis when clinical criteria may still lack sensitivity and specificity. This development can be transformative for clinical decision making, pre-symptomatic identification of PSP and stratifying patients for disease modifying clinical trials.