Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, shares her work looking into the accuracy of blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. To be clinically effective, blood-based biomarkers require strong agreement with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET) markers. Currently, several blood tests exist, but most lack the necessary performance level for practical use. Notably, plasma p-tau217 appears to demonstrate high accuracy in predicting PET status. A test analyzing the ratio of phosphorylated to non-phosphorylated tau217 (tau217 occupancy) exhibits exceptional accuracy in predicting amyloid PET status. In a cohort of over 300 individuals who underwent amyloid PET and measurement of established CSF biomarkers, classification accuracy was equivalent for plasma tau217 occupancy and CSF Aβ42/Aβ40. Additionally, plasma tau217 occupancy more accurately classified individuals as cognitively impaired versus unimpaired, and better correlated with dementia severity, compared to CSF Aβ42/Aβ40. With disease-modifying treatments becoming more and more available, knowledge of amyloid status is becoming crucial, influencing distinct management pathways. However, meeting the higher demand for capacity is imperative for broader implementation of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice. This interview took place at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference® (AAIC) 2023 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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