Neurofibrillary Tangles Mediate the Association of Amyloid Load With Clinical Alzheimer Disease and Level of Cognitive Function

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that the association of amyloid load with clinical Alzheimer disease (AD) and cognitive impairment is mediated through neurofibrillary tangles. DESIGN: Longitudinal clinicopathologic cohort study. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Forty-four individuals with clinically diagnosed AD and 53 without dementia who participated in the Religious Orders Study underwent a uniform structured clinical evaluation for AD and cognitive testing about 8 months prior to death, and brain autopsy at death. METHODS: The percent area occupied by amyloid-beta and the density of neurofibrillary tangles were quantified from 6 brain regions and averaged to yield summary measures of amyloid load and neurofibrillary tangles. Multivariate regression analyses were used to simultaneously examine the effects of amyloid load and neurofibrillary tangles on clinically diagnosed AD and level of cognition. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinically diagnosed AD and level of global cognitive function proximate to death. RESULTS: In separate logistic regression analyses, each 1% increase in amyloid load was associated with about a 50% increase in the odds of clinical AD (P =.002), and each neurofibrillary tangle was associated with a greater than 20% increase in the odds of clinical AD (P<.001). When a term for tangles was added to the regression model with amyloid, the association of amyloid load with clinical disease was reduced by more than 60% and was no longer significant, whereas the association of tangles with clinical disease was essentially unchanged. Similar results were found in analyses of global cognitive function. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with a sequence of pathologic events whereby the effect of amyloid deposition on clinical disease is mediated by neurofibrillary tangles.