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Primary Age-Related Tauopathy (PART): Addressing the Spectrum of Neuronal Tauopathic Changes in the Aging Brain

  • Dementia (K.S. Marder, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Primary age-related tauopathy (PART) was recently proposed as a pathologic diagnosis for brains that harbor neurofibrillary tangles (Braak stage ≤ 4) with little, if any, amyloid burden. We sought to review the clinicopathologic findings related to PART.

Recent Findings

Most adult human brains show at least focal tauopathic changes, and the majority of individuals with PART do not progress to dementia. Older age and cognitive impairment correlate with increased Braak stage, and multivariate analyses suggest that the rate of cognitive decline is less than matched patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). It remains unclear whether PART is a distinct tauopathic entity separate from AD or rather represents an earlier histologic stage of AD.

Summary

Cognitive decline in PART is usually milder than AD and correlates with tauopathic burden. Biomarker and ligand-based radiologic studies will be important to define PART antemortem and prospectively follow its natural history.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jean-Paul Vonsattel for useful comments and providing the macroscopic images of Fig. 1a, b. We extend our sincere gratitude to all of the patients, families, and caregivers for their generosity in brain donation for neurodegenerative research.

Funding

RAH is supported by grant funding from the Huntington Disease Society of America and Hereditary Disease Foundation. This review is supported by P50 AG008702 (PI Scott Small, MD) and P30AG066512 (TW).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, 630 West 168th Street, PH 15-124, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Richard A. Hickman & Xena E. Flowers

  2. Departments of Neurology, Pathology and Psychiatry, Center for Cognitive Neurology, NYU School of Medicine, Science Building, Rm 1017, 435 East 30th Street, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Thomas Wisniewski

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  1. Richard A. Hickman
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Correspondence to Richard A. Hickman.

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Hickman, R.A., Flowers, X.E. & Wisniewski, T. Primary Age-Related Tauopathy (PART): Addressing the Spectrum of Neuronal Tauopathic Changes in the Aging Brain. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 20, 39 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-020-01063-1

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