Poster: Tau Protein Assay Comparison Highlights SPEAR’s Superior Sensitivity for Differentiation of Alzheimer’s Biomarkers

poster comparing SPEAR tau protein assay vs comparator, with superior sensitivity and differentiation results
Authors: Tsz Wing Fan, PhD, Corinne Thomas, PhD, WonHee Kim, PhD, Wenjing Jiang, MS, Jeremy Tan, MS and Feng Xuan, PhD, Spear Bio Inc. , Woburn, MA, USA

Ultra-sensitive tau protein assay enables clear pTau 217 differentiation

SPEAR technology—based on a novel two-factor authentication mechanism—demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in quantifying pTau 217 in plasma samples from patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. This next-generation tau protein immunoassay successfully differentiated amyloid PET-positive from PET-negative subjects with a 4.86-fold signal increase in PET-positive individuals, outperforming a comparator assay that showed only 2.7-fold separation.

SPEAR tau protein assay performance vs comparator assay

The SPEAR pTau 217 assay maintained >90% clinical sensitivity and specificity, and significantly reduced the “indeterminate” diagnostic zone—by 2.8-fold compared to the competitor. ROC curve analysis confirmed higher AUC values across AD and MCI subgroups, reflecting SPEAR’s stronger diagnostic power in Alzheimer’s biomarker testing.

Lab-friendly tau protein assay workflow

The SPEAR tau protein assay delivers robust results from just 1 μL of diluted sample, using a homogeneous assay format and wash-free workflow compatible with basic lab equipment and standard qPCR machines. This makes it ideal for large-scale studies and clinical applications requiring scalability, cost-efficiency, and minimal hands-on time.

 

 

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