Plasma Phosphorylated Tau 217 Percentage by Race and Ethnicity in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease.

Authors

Doris P Molina-Henry, Andy Liu, Oliver Langford, Rema Raman, Dina Dass, Emily Clark, Gregory S Day, Hamid R Okhravi, Pallavi Joshi, Paulette Cazares, Raymond Scott Turner, Joel B Braunstein, Philip Verghese, Venky Venkatesh, Tim West, Shobha Dhadda, Michael Irizarry, Keith Johnson, Robert A Rissman, Joshua D Grill, Paul Aisen, Reisa A Sperling

Published in

JAMA neurology. Oct 12, 2026. Epub Oct 12, 2026.

Abstract

In trials targeting preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD), defined as amyloid pathology without cognitive symptoms, racial and ethnic differences in plasma phosphorylated tau 217 percentage (%p-tau217) may influence screening eligibility.
To characterize racial and ethnic differences in %p-tau217 and determine whether associations between %p-tau217, cognition, and amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) differ across groups.
This was a cross-sectional analysis of AHEAD 3-45 screening participants conducted from July 2020 to October 2024 at 106 sites across 4 world regions. Adults aged 55 to 80 years with %p-tau217 measured before medical and cognitive exclusions (N = 15 612) were included.
Self-reported race (Asian, Black, and White) and ethnicity (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) and apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) carrier status.
%p-tau217 levels and associations of %p-tau217 with Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite 5 (PACC5) score and amyloid PET were evaluated across racial and ethnic groups using multivariable linear regression.
Among 15 612 participants, the mean (SD) age was 68.4 (6.2) years; 9941 (63.7%) were female and 5755 (36.9%) were APOE ε4 carriers. %p-tau217 levels were lower among Asian, Black, and Hispanic participants than among White and non-Hispanic participants. APOE ε4 status was associated with higher %p-tau217 across all groups. The association between APOE ε4 status and %p-tau217 differed by race (APOE ε4 × race: F2,14 973 = 10.06; P < .001) and ethnicity (APOE ε4 × ethnicity: β, 0.042; 95% CI, 0.017 to 0.067; P = .005) (Asian: β, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.08; P = .01; Black: β, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.08; P = .002; Hispanic: β, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07; P = .005). The %p-tau217-PACC5 association showed no pairwise differences across racial groups but differed by ethnicity (β, -0.53; 95% CI, -0.85 to -0.21; P = .008) and APOE ε4 × ethnicity (β, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.26 to 1.30; P = .02). The %p-tau217-PET association showed no significant pairwise differences across racial groups but differed by ethnicity (β, -6.30; 95% CI, -9.10 to -3.51; P < .001) and APOE ε4 × ethnicity (β, 7.12; 95% CI, 2.52 to 11.73; P = .01).
In this cross-sectional study, plasma %p-tau217 varied across racial and ethnic groups. Consistent %p-tau217-PACC5 score and %p-tau217-PET associations across racial groups support plasma-based screening before PET confirmation, while ethnicity-related findings warrant further investigation.

PMID:
42862590
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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