Women Accumulate Alzheimer's-Related Protein Faster

A study in Brain found tau protein builds up at a higher rate in women compared to men, reports EurekAlert . "Tau accumulation rates vary greatly between individuals of the same sex, but in the temporal lobe, which is affected in Alzheimer's disease, we found a 75 percent higher accumulation rate in women as a group compared to men," said Lund University's Ruben Smith. Tau buildup is faster in patients who already have a pathological accumulation of beta-amyloid, and are in the early phase of Alzheimer's disease. The higher accumulation rate among women persisted after adjusting for age and the levels of tau they had at the study's outset. "Our study strongly indicates that the faster spread of tau makes women more prone to develop dementia because of Alzheimer's pathology compared to men," said Lund Professor Oskar Hansson. "Future experimental studies will be important to understand the reasons behind this."