NIAID Scientists Develop Test for Rare Brain Diseases Related to Alzheimer’s

Transmission electron microscope image of three uncommon tau protein diseases.

Representative negative-stained transmission electron microscopy images of 4R RT-QuIC products seeded with brain homogenates from individuals with the designated diseases – frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17; corticobasal degeneration; and progressive supranuclear palsy.

Credit: NIAID

NIAID scientists have developed an ultrasensitive new test to detect abnormal forms of tau protein associated with uncommon brain diseases called tauopathies. As they describe in Acta Neuropathologica, this advance gives them hope of using cerebrospinal fluid—an accessible patient sample—rather than brain tissue to diagnose these and perhaps other, more common neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. The new test is called 4R RT-QuIC—which stands for 4-repeat tau protein amplified in a real-time, quaking-induced conversion process.