Overview
- The Nature Medicine study from Washington University analyzed longitudinal plasma p‑tau217 in 603 cognitively unimpaired adults from the Knight ADRC and ADNI cohorts to estimate age of symptom onset.
- The predictive model performed consistently across multiple commercial p‑tau217 assays, including C2N’s PrecivityAD2 and an FDA‑cleared test, underscoring robustness across platforms.
- Age at biomarker positivity shaped timelines to symptoms, with elevations at about 60 years preceding onset by roughly 20 years and at about 80 years by about 11 years.
- The team released model‑development code and a web tool to enable replication and refinement, positioning the approach to speed preventive trial enrollment and timelines.
- Authors and independent experts emphasize the need for validation in more diverse settings and note confounding medical conditions can affect results; the work was supported by the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium and includes disclosed industry ties.