Personalised regional modelling predicts tau progression in the human brain
(2025) In PLoS Biology 23(7).- Abstract
Aggregation of the hyperphosphorylated tau protein is a central driver of Alzheimer’s disease, and its accumulation exhibits a rich spatiotemporal pattern that unfolds during the course of the disease, sequentially progressing through the brain across axonal connections. It is unclear how this spatiotemporal process is orchestrated, namely, to what extent the spread of pathologic tau is governed by transport between brain regions, local production, or both. To address this, we develop a mechanistic model from tau PET data to describe tau dynamics along the Alzheimer’s disease timeline. Our analysis reveals longitudinal changes in production and transport dynamics in two independent cohorts, with subjects in the early stage of the... (More)
Aggregation of the hyperphosphorylated tau protein is a central driver of Alzheimer’s disease, and its accumulation exhibits a rich spatiotemporal pattern that unfolds during the course of the disease, sequentially progressing through the brain across axonal connections. It is unclear how this spatiotemporal process is orchestrated, namely, to what extent the spread of pathologic tau is governed by transport between brain regions, local production, or both. To address this, we develop a mechanistic model from tau PET data to describe tau dynamics along the Alzheimer’s disease timeline. Our analysis reveals longitudinal changes in production and transport dynamics in two independent cohorts, with subjects in the early stage of the disease exhibiting transport-dominated spread, consistent with an initial spread of pathological tau seeds, and subjects in the late stage disease characterized primarily by local tau production. Further, we demonstrate that the model can predict accurately subject-specific longitudinal tau accumulation at the regional level, potentially providing a new clinical tool to monitor and classify patient disease progression.
(Less)
- author
- author collaboration
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- PLoS Biology
- volume
- 23
- issue
- 7
- article number
- e3003241
- publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40690524
- scopus:105011509450
- ISSN
- 1544-9173
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003241
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Chaggar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- id
- 58b94d7b-dccf-4d6a-b347-047b6322f2aa
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-11 09:58:46
- date last changed
- 2025-12-12 03:22:52
@article{58b94d7b-dccf-4d6a-b347-047b6322f2aa,
abstract = {{<p>Aggregation of the hyperphosphorylated tau protein is a central driver of Alzheimer’s disease, and its accumulation exhibits a rich spatiotemporal pattern that unfolds during the course of the disease, sequentially progressing through the brain across axonal connections. It is unclear how this spatiotemporal process is orchestrated, namely, to what extent the spread of pathologic tau is governed by transport between brain regions, local production, or both. To address this, we develop a mechanistic model from tau PET data to describe tau dynamics along the Alzheimer’s disease timeline. Our analysis reveals longitudinal changes in production and transport dynamics in two independent cohorts, with subjects in the early stage of the disease exhibiting transport-dominated spread, consistent with an initial spread of pathological tau seeds, and subjects in the late stage disease characterized primarily by local tau production. Further, we demonstrate that the model can predict accurately subject-specific longitudinal tau accumulation at the regional level, potentially providing a new clinical tool to monitor and classify patient disease progression.</p>}},
author = {{Chaggar, Pavanjit and Vogel, Jacob and Binette, Alexa Pichet and Thompson, Travis B. and Strandberg, Olof and Mattsson-Carlgren, Niklas and Karlsson, Linda and Stomrud, Erik and Jbabdi, Saad and Magon, Stefano and Klein, Gregory and Hansson, Oskar and Goriely, Alain}},
issn = {{1544-9173}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{7}},
publisher = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
series = {{PLoS Biology}},
title = {{Personalised regional modelling predicts tau progression in the human brain}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003241}},
doi = {{10.1371/journal.pbio.3003241}},
volume = {{23}},
year = {{2025}},
}
