Neuronal and oligodendroglial but not astroglial tau translates to in vivo tau-PET signals in primary tauopathies

Tau-PET receives growing interest as an imaging biomarker for the 4-repeat tauopathy progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). However, the translation of in vitro 4R-tau binding to in vivo tau-PET signals is still unclear. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal [18F]PI-2620 PET/MRI study in a 4-repeat-tau mouse model (PS19) and found elevated [18F]PI-2620 PET signal in the presence of high neuronal tau. Cell sorting after radiotracer injection in vivo revealed higher tracer uptake in single neurons compared to astrocytes of PS19 mice. Regional [18F]PI-2620 tau-PET signals during lifetime correlated with abundance of fibrillary tau in subsequent autopsy samples of PSP patients and disease controls. In autoradiography, tau-positive neurons and oligodendrocytes with high AT8 density but not tau-positive astrocytes were the driver of [18F]PI-2620 autoradiography signals in PSP. In summary, neuronal and oligodendroglial tau constitutes the dominant source of tau-PET radiotracer binding in 4-repeat-tauopathies, yielding the capacity to translate to an in vivo signal.