Open-source software standardizes tau PET image analysis for neurodegenerative disease research
In neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, abnormal accumulation of tau protein occurs in the brain. Identifying the location and extent of tau accumulation in vivo is crucial for understanding disease mechanisms and progression.
Tau protein accumulation in the brain is a hallmark of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F) PET imaging with florzolotau radiotracer can visualize this abnormal tau pathology. However, reference values for analysis often rely on specific laboratory software, limiting reproducibility and cross-study comparisons.
Researchers have now developed TAME-Q, an open-source software pipeline that automates florzolotau PET analysis, estimating gray-matter reference values and generating standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) images. The software was tested on imaging data from 133 participants, including those with Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and healthy controls.
The automated pipeline successfully processed all datasets, with measurements consistent with previous studies. Importantly, machine learning-derived tau scores calculated from TAME-Q regional SUVRs correlated with benchmarks from prior research. By releasing TAME-Q along with its execution environment, the study provides a transparent, standardized workflow for reproducible tau PET research, reducing the burden of software installation and configuration. This open-source tool is expected to support future studies of neurodegenerative diseases.
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