General cortical involvement in a late-onset case of Alzheimer disease. A biochemical approach by quantitation of abnormal tau proteins.

We have performed a biochemical mapping of the neurofibrillary degeneration in all cortical areas of Alzheimer patients, using the immunological quantification of pathological tau 55, 64, and 69. These abnormally phosphorylated proteins, which are the basic components of PHF, are reliable markers of the degenerating process in Alzheimer disease. Here, we report our biochemical findings on a brain from a 90-yr-old woman with an 8-yr history of Alzheimer disease who exhibited dramatic and general cortical involvement. The detection of these markers was very high in all Brodmann areas, even in primary motor, somatosensory, or visual cortex. This case report contrasts with other studies, which suggested that a more virulent disease process is generally associated with an early onset and argues for the heterogeneity of the disease. Moreover, we show here that the immunodetection of abnormal tau proteins using the western blot method is a precise, reliable, and reproducible way to quantify the degenerating process in AD.