DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7957574
title: Humans share features of Alzheimer's neuropathology with other mammalian species

description: Summary of relevant publications describing Aβ and tau neuropathology in carnivores collated into tables. Table 1. Alzheimer-like neuropathology in carnivore species. Occurrence of Aβ deposits in plaques in the brain and vessels (CAA) plaques and tauopathy (including NFTs and the earlier pTau) in select carnivore (Carnivora) species (primarily focusing on cats and dogs) compared to humans. The age of occurrence and prevalence of these pathologies is reported for each study. Supplementary Table 1 (S1). Occurrence and distribution of plaque and tangle types in carnivore species. Extended version of Table 1 to include the type of plaques, CAA (Aβ residues), and Tau pathology and their distribution across the cerebral cortex and other areas of the brain. For more information about the classification of mature versus early-stage plaques, see the 'Table legend and Key' tab in the extended table workbook (S1). Summary of the key findings from the data collated in Table 1 and S1: Dogs, but not cats, have Alzheimer-like mature senile plaques. Other felids (Felidae), such as cheetahs and Tsushima leopard cats, also do not have mature plaques, but other carnivore species, such as sea lions, did display this type of senile plaques. Cats have less cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in the meninges than dogs and humans. However, there were a higher number of observations of hyperphosphorylated tau in the cat studies we collated than in those studying dogs. Nonetheless, dogs and cats had a similar number of positive reports for neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and these were found to be at a lower prevalence than that in humans.
description: Acknowledgements: BARD's research was supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), grant number EP/S023437/1, belonging to the UKRI CDT in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent Artificial Intelligence. Assistance with formatting and checking the tables was provided by Aparna Nair (ORCID: 0009-0004-1745-5973).
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