S. Golombowski et al., DEPENDENCE OF CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID TAU-PROTEIN LEVELS ON APOLIPOPROTEIN E4 ALLELE FREQUENCY IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, Neuroscience letters, 225(3), 1997, pp. 213-215
Consistent pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are the
formation of brain amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Levels
of the major protein component of NFTs, the microtubule associated pro
tein Tau, were shown to be increased in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of A
D patients as compared to age-matched controls. The presence of the ap
olipoprotein E-epsilon 4 allele (APOE4) is a risk factor for sporadic
and familial late-onset AD. ApoE may interact with the binding of Tau
to microtubules and Tau phosphorylation in an isoform-specific manner.
We investigated whether direct evidence of an isoform-specific intera
ction of apoE and Tau can be demonstrated in the CSF of live AD patien
ts. We measured the apoE genotype and CSF levels of Tau in 19 patients
with probable AD and 12 age-matched control subjects. We found that C
SF levels of Tau increase with increasing APOE4 allele frequency (Spea
rman rank correlation, z = 2.71, P = 0.007). This finding may be in ag
reement with reports of a lesser binding of apoE4 to Tau, compared to
apoE2 and apoE3, resulting in higher levels of unbound Tau in CSF. (C)
1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.