Plasma p-tau181 and amyloid markers in Alzheimer’s disease: A comparison between Lumipulse and SIMOA

Abstract

Aim of the project was to evaluate the technical and clinical validity of plasma Lumipulse p-tau, Aβ42 and Aβ40 species and their correlation with CSF core Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) markers; a method comparison with SIMOA was also performed. One-hundred-thirthy-three participants, namely 55 A+T+N+ AD, 28 Neurodegenerative disorders (NDD) and 50 controls were enrolled for the study. Lumipulse technical validity showed high stability for p-tau181, Aβ42, and Aβ40, with higher stability of p-tau to repeated freezing thaw cycles. p-tau181 levels detected by both techniques were higher in AD compared to both NDD/controls and exhibited a similar correlation with CSF p-tau levels, whereas Aβ42 levels were slightly lower in AD with both methods. In the comparison between SIMOA and Lumipulse plasma markers, both techniques exhibited similar diagnostic accuracy for AD for p-tau181 (0.87; 95 %CI 0.81–0.94, vs 0.85; 95 %CI 0.78–0.93), whereas the best performance was reached by p-tau181/ Aβ42 Lumipulse ratio (ROC AUC 0.915, 95 %CI 0.86–0.97). The study thus confirmed the construct validity of both Lumipulse and SIMOA techniques for the identification of CSF AD pattern in clinical settings.