An immuno-enrichment free, validated quantification of tau protein in human CSF by LC-MS/MS

PLoS One. 2022 Jun 2;17(6):e0269157. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269157. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Tau protein is a key target of interest in developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we sought to develop a method that quantifies extracellular tau protein concentrations in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) without antibody-based enrichment strategies. We demonstrate that the fit-for-purpose validated method in Alzheimer's Disease CSF is limited to quasi quantitative measures of tau surrogate peptides. We also provide evidence that CSF total Tau measures by LC-MS are feasible in the presence of monoclonal therapeutic antibodies in human CSF. Our Tau LC-MS/MS method is a translational bioanalytical tool for assaying target engagement and pharmacodynamics for anti-tau antibody drug development campaigns.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease* / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Chromatography, Liquid / methods
  • Humans
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • tau Proteins* / cerebrospinal fluid

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • tau Proteins

Grants and funding

All authors are or were employees of AbbVie, Inc. and AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co KG. All authors received salaries from AbbVie during completion of these studies, and may own AbbVie stock. AbbVie sponsored and funded the study, contributed to the design, participated in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing, reviewing, and approval of the final publication.