Alzheimer's May Have Different Trajectory for Women Biological difference may explain why women have higher AD risk

Among amyloid-positive individuals, women had more tau signal in their entorhinal cortices than men (meta-analytic estimate of beta for males -0.11, 95% CI -0.21 to -0.02, P=0.02). That gap grew wider with increased amyloid: with higher amyloid-beta burden, women showed higher entorhinal cortex tau than men in both the HABS (beta -0.17, 95% CI -0.32 to -0.01, P=0.04) and the ADNI (beta -0.23, 95% CI -0.42 to -0.04, P=0.02) cohorts. In the HABS group, sex and APOE did not appear to interact to influence tau deposits. In the ADNI group, a sex-by-APOE ε4 interaction was found in a meta-region that included the entorhinal cortex, inferior temporal cortex, amygdala, fusiform gyrus, and the parahippocampal cortex, with the association between APOE ε4 and tau retention stronger among women than men. This study builds on previous research "suggesting sex differences, albeit very subtle, in Alzheimer's pathology," noted Michelle Mielke, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved with the study. https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/alzheimersdisease/77816?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2019-02-05&eun=g721819d0r?xid%3Dnl_mpt_DHE_2019-02-05&eun=g721819d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NEW%20Daily%20Headlines%20Email_TestB%202019-02-05&utm_term=DHE_NewTemplate_TestB_012019