Stable episodic memory and higher education do not influence the rate of Alzheimer's disease pathology as measured by plasma p‐tau217
Bárbara Avelar‐Pereira, Nicola Spotorno, Anna Orduña Dolado, Divya Bali, Annelie Nordin Adolfsson, Niklas Mattsson‐Carlgren, Sebastian Palmqvist, Shorena Janelidze, Oskar Hansson, Lars NybergAbstract
INTRODUCTION
Blood‐based biomarkers, particularly phosphorylated tau 217 (p‐tau217), can detect early Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathological changes. Recent work has shown that p‐tau217 is lower in individuals with stable cognition and higher education. These factors may protect against AD pathology.
METHODS
We evaluated whether individuals with stable episodic memory and higher education exhibited lower levels of or slower increases in p‐tau217 using longitudinal data from the population‐based Betula study ( n = 1005; 1531 samples).
RESULTS
P‐tau217 increased with age over 10 years ( p < 0.001), with the steepest increase seen in individuals with accelerated episodic‐memory decline ( p < 0.001). There were no differences in p‐tau217 trajectories between individuals with lower or higher education ( p = 0.386) or with well‐maintained or age‐typical decline in episodic memory ( p = 0.885). The null finding for education was replicated in the BioFINDER‐2 cohort ( p = 0.14).
DISCUSSION
Plasma p‐tau217 can detect early pathological changes in population‐based settings, but our findings do not support the notion that higher education or well‐maintained memory protects against AD neuropathological changes.