ArticleNature communications2020
Spread of pathological tau proteins through communicating neurons in human Alzheimer's disease.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 331 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
331 citing papers in PubMed, 521 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Alters Brain Communication Networks to Improve the Cognitive Function in Patients with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment - A Clinical Trial.Current neuropharmacology · 2026Trial
- Assessment of Efficacy and Safety of Zagotenemab: Results From PERISCOPE-ALZ, a Phase 2 Study in Early Symptomatic Alzheimer Disease.Neurology · 2024Trial
- Alzheimer's Disease Accelerates Cerebral Atrophy by Over a Decade Compared to Healthy Aging.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Structural compression and entorhinal vulnerability: Linking tentorial adjacency to tau burden and dementia progression.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Perivascular Spaces as Determinants of Amyloid, Tau, and Vascular Biomarker Progression.Annals of neurology · 2026Article
- APOE4-dependent cholinergic/dopaminergic contributions to clinical symptoms across Alzheimer's disease spectrum: A retrospective observational study.European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2026Article
- Neuromodulation techniques targeting neurotransmitter dysfunction: Innovation in treatments for Alzheimer's disease.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Tau Disaggregation by a CNS-Permeable Small Molecule Reduces Fibril and Oligomer Burden and Preserves Proteostasis and Behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Rostral associations of MRI atrophy of the amygdala and entorhinal cortex across the AD spectrum.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- CSF α-synuclein seed amplification assay positivity identifies a distinct soluble amyloid-β profile linked to fibrillar amyloid burden and structural neurodegeneration.Research square · 2026Article
- Network-level functional connectivity is associated with longitudinal tau accumulation and amyloid-dependent cognitive decline in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.Research square · 2026Article
- Group-level versus individualized approaches for capturing tau PET changes and clinical progression in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Sex specificity of resistance to caTAUstrophe.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Tau-mediated Mechanisms in Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Tau seeds induce neurofibrillary tangle formation across brain regions via individual-specific connectivity.Neuron · 2026Article
- Disruption of temporo-parietal network in Alzheimer's disease and its association with memory impairment.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Observational
- Modular brain networks shape amyloid-driven tau spread and cognitive decline.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Corticothalamic circuit and executive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Decreased amyloid-related structure-function coupling in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal modeling of tau aggregation following traumatic brain injury: implications for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology · 2026Article
271 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 20 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Tau is a hallmark pathology of Alzheimer's disease, and animal models have suggested that tau spreads from cell to cell through neuronal connections, facilitated by β-amyloid (Aβ). We test this hypothesis in humans using an epidemic spreading model (ESM) to simulate tau spread, and compare these simulations to observed patterns measured using tau-PET in 312 individuals along Alzheimer's disease continuum. Up to 70% of the variance in the overall spatial pattern of tau can be explained by our model. Surprisingly, the ESM predicts the spatial patterns of tau irrespective of whether brain Aβ is present, but regions with greater Aβ burden show greater tau than predicted by connectivity patterns, suggesting a role of Aβ in accelerating tau spread. Altogether, our results provide evidence in humans that tau spreads through neuronal communication pathways even in normal aging, and that this process is accelerated by the presence of brain Aβ.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.