Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40501844›Full record

ArticlebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2025

The Neurofibrillary Tangle Maturity Scale: A Novel Framework for Tangle Pathology Evaluation in Alzheimer's Disease.

Christina M Moloney, Matthew H Rutledge, Sydney A Labuzan, Zhongwei Peng, Jessica F Tranovich, Ashley C Wood, Darren M Rothberg, Ranjan Duara, Christian Lachner, Neill R Graff-Radford and 4 more

Abstract readPreprint
In one paragraph

Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

Christina M MoloneyDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Matthew H RutledgeDepartment of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Sydney A LabuzanDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Zhongwei PengDepartment of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Jessica F TranovichDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Ashley C WoodDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Darren M RothbergDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Ranjan DuaraWien Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL, USA.
Christian LachnerDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Neill R Graff-RadfordDepartment of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Dennis W DicksonDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.
Nicholas M KanaanDepartment of Translational Neuroscience, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, USA.
Rickey E CarterDepartment of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0818-273X
Melissa E MurrayDepartment of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA.

Funding

Research Education ComponentP30AG062677 · NIA · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · PI KEJAL KANTARCI · 2019 to 2026
$33.5M
Investigating regional and cellular vulnerabilities to tau pathology in young-onset Alzheimer's diseaseR01AG075802 · NIA · MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE · PI BERNARDINO Francesco GHETTI, Lea Tenenholz Grinberg · 2022 to 2026
$15.5M
Tau Conformation in Tauopathies and Neuronal FunctionR01NS082730 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · PI BRADY, SCOTT THOMAS, KANAAN, NICHOLAS M · 2014 to 2023
$7.0M
"What is N?" Towards operationalizing neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's and related dementiasRF1AG069052 · NIA · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · PI GRAFF-RADFORD, JONATHAN, MIELKE, MICHELLE M · 2021 to 2021
$2.4M
Tau PET/CT for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease PathologyR01AG073282 · NIA · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · PI LOWE, VAL JOHN, MURRAY, MELISSA ERIN · 2021 to 2025
$2.0M
NIA NIH HHS P30 AG062677NIA NIH HHS R01 AG073282NIA NIH HHS R01 AG075802NIA NIH HHS RF1 AG069052NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS082730
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Neurofibrillary tangles are dynamic neuropathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease with a hypothesized lifespan morphologically-defined by three maturity levels: pretangles, mature tangles, and ghost tangles. To better understand the progression of tangle pathophysiology, we characterized tangle maturity level predilection of 15 tau antibodies recognizing a broad range of linear, phosphorylation, conformational, and truncation epitopes in the hippocampus of 24 postmortem brains. We developed the tangle maturity scoring system to semi-quantitatively evaluate each tangle maturity level. Based on proportions of tangle maturity levels, we classified antibodies as "early" (mostly pretangles and mature tangles), "middling" (mature tangles with pretangles and ghost tangles), and "advanced" (mostly ghost tangles and mature tangles) tangle maturity markers. To summarize tangle maturity predilection, we developed the tangle maturity scale to integrate individual tangle maturity scores. Correlations showed stronger relationships between tangle maturity scale and subsector thickness for more advanced tangle maturity markers in CA1 and subiculum, whereas Braak tangle stage remained consistently correlated throughout markers of the tangle lifespan. To aid in scoring hippocampi, we used machine learning to recognize tangle maturity levels, which performed comparably to a domain expert and showed similar relationships by Spearman correlation. Pattern recognition software was used to assess tangle and neuritic tau burden separately, which generally correlated with Braak stage and neuronal counts. However, tangle-derived tau burden more consistently correlated with hippocampal subsector thickness. In conclusion, we developed manual and automated scoring systems to evaluate tangle maturity levels, demonstrating early 4R, phosphorylated, and oligomeric tau accumulation preceding more advanced 3R and truncated tau. Our study provides supportive evidence of disease-relevant ordering of tau posttranslational modifications in the brain, which may have implications for theragnostic development. These findings underscore the promise of computerized quantitative analyses (i.e., pathomics) for high-throughput feature extraction from whole-slide images to enhance our understanding of microscopically observed morphologic changes.

Indexed as

Alzheimer’s diseaseartificial intelligenceneurofibrillary tangle maturitytangle maturity scaletangle maturity score

Identifiers

PMID40501844
PMCPMC12157467

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.