Pascoal Lab

In our new study @NatureComms, Dr Soares et al show that CSF total tau, often used as a marker of neurodegeneration, is more strongly linked to synaptic degeneration than axonal or neuronal loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Check our paper here🔗doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

When focusing on individuals with intermediate Aβ levels, effect sizes increase and required sample sizes drop in both cognitively unimpaired and impaired groups—substantially reducing trial costs. These results support plasma p-tau217 as an efficient endpoint for AD trials.

Led by @pamlukasewicz, this multi-cohort study shows that longitudinal changes in plasma p-tau217 represent a robust endpoint for Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WN…

We were very happy to receive Etienne Vachon-Presseau @evp82, Associate Professor at McGill, for a lab visit today! Etienne presented findings from analysis of UK Biobank data on prediction of chronic pain, including results from his group's recent papers (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12…). Thank you for the visit, Etienne!

📌 Implication: Clinical trials targeting neuroinflammation in AD could benefit from stageing participants by Aβ and tau status as inflammation can lead to opposite effects depending on the disease stage.

Importantly, neuroinflammation alone did not predict degeneration. Its detrimental effects appeared only in the presence of Aβ or tau pathology, suggesting a context-dependent role.

In our new paper, we show that neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s follows a two-wave pattern of harmful effects: 1️⃣ First wave: triggered by amyloid-β (Aβ) 2️⃣ Second wave: driven by widespread tau pathology 📄 alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/al…

A huge thank you to all our incredible collaborators: @BellaverBruna @Pamlukasewicz @guilhermepovala @firoza_lussier @gbnegrini @FrancieliRohden @crisaguzzoli @kkarilab @erzimmer, as well as teams from WRAP and Gothenburg, plus the reviewers and participants! 🙏

In our new study @NatureComms, Dr Soares et al show that CSF total tau, often used as a marker of neurodegeneration, is more strongly linked to synaptic degeneration than axonal or neuronal loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Check our paper here🔗doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

I also want to thank all the co-authors!

I’m proud to share our systematic review & meta-analysis of plasma p-tau diagnostic accuracy studies :) thelancet.com/journals/laneu… Some highlights:

Paper 4: Insights into the use of biomarkers in clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease by @TharickAPascoal and colleagues: thelancet.com/journals/ebiom…

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We thank Dr Eric Siemers for his insightful comment on our recent publication, “Utility of Plasma GFAP as a Secondary Endpoint in AD Trials,” highlighting the growing potential of plasma GFAP in AD trials @LabPascoal @TharickAPascoal 👇👇👇 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Excellent presentation by #MarcoDeBastiani on a promising novel microglial biomarker linked to brain glucose metabolism at #AAIC25! @zimmerneurolab

Heading to #AAIC2025? We’re excited to share 9 oral presentations and 16 posters at this year’s conference! Come find us - we’d love to connect, discuss, and explore opportunities for collaboration.👇

New paper alert🚨 Our new study led by Dr @FrancieliRohden @NatureComms showed glial reactivity correlates with synaptic dysfunction in aging and AD, revealing how astrocyte and microglial activation influence synaptic degeneration. Check it now: nature.com/articles/s4146…