Skip to main content

Link Between Global β-Amyloid, Tau Deposition Varies by Sex

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 14, 2025.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 14, 2025 -- Women and individuals with a paternal history of Alzheimer disease (AD) have a stronger association between global β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau deposition, according to a study published online April 9 in Neurology.

Valentin Ourry, Ph.D., from McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues examined whether sex or affected AD parent's sex influence Aβ and tau burden/accumulation in a sample of 243 participants from the Presymptomatic Evaluation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for AD cohort in Canada.

All participants were cognitively unimpaired at baseline. Longitudinal cognitive data were available for 242 participants (follow-up, 6.72 ± 2.38 years). Seventy-one participants developed mild cognitive impairment. The researchers found greater tau deposition in women (standardized β, 0.13 ± 0.3); the association between global Aβ and tau deposition was stronger for women than men (standardized β = 0.79 ± 0.1). A stronger association between global Aβ and tau deposition was seen for individuals with an affected AD father versus those with an affected AD mother (standardized β = 0.65 ± 0.1). Less Aβ-associated hippocampal atrophy was seen over time for women (standardized β = 0.24 ± 0.1).

"Women and, surprisingly, individuals with an affected AD father, seem to be more vulnerable to the spread of Aβ-related tau outside the medial temporal lobe," the authors write. "Despite this vulnerability to tau pathology, the association between Aβ and hippocampal atrophy was reduced in women, which could reflect some cause of brain resilience or the fact that Aβ is a less important driver of atrophy in women."

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Editorial (subscription or payment may be required)

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted April 2025

Read this next

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 May Affect Risk for Alzheimer Disease

THURSDAY, May 22, 2025 -- Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) based on real-world data from the United States...

Exposure to Certain HIV Drugs May Significantly Lower Risk for Alzheimer Disease

TUESDAY, May 20, 2025 -- Exposure to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), which treat HIV and hepatitis B and inhibit inflammasome activation, is associated with a...

Overwork Tied to Structural Changes in Brains of Health Care Workers

MONDAY, May 19, 2025 -- Overwork in health care workers is associated with structural brain changes, particularly in regions linked to cognition and emotion, according to a study...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.