An open dataset of cerebral tau deposition in young healthy adults based on [18F]MK6240 positron emission tomography

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Dataset of 33 young to middle-age healthy adults (mean age 34 ± 10.4 years, 12 female) with [18F]MK6240 PET and T1w MRI
[18F]MK6240 is a second generation tracer with high tau affinity and minimal off-target binding, enabling in vivo tau measurement
Includes longitudinal follow-up for nine participants with a minimum one-year interval, supporting biomarker studies in early and non-geriatric tauopathies

Sci Data. 2026 Jul 4. doi: 10.1038/s41597-026-07656-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Tauopathies are pathologies wherein phosphorylated insoluble tau aggregates in neurons, leading to dysfunction and degeneration. Positron emission tomography (PET) enables measurement of in vivo tau, with second-generation radiotracers such as [¹⁸F]MK6240 showing high tau affinity with minimal off-target binding. While tauopathies are commonly linked to age-related neurodegenerative diseases, notably Alzheimer’s disease (AD), evidence suggests pathophysiological cascades may begin long before clinical onset. Increasingly, tau is recognized in pathologies affecting younger individuals, including autosomal dominant AD, Niemann-Pick disease type C, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and epilepsy, thus highlighting the importance of normative data in non-geriatric populations. Here, we present a dataset of 33 young to middle-age healthy adults (mean age 34.0 ± 10.4 years, 12 female) with [¹⁸F]MK6240 PET data and T1w magnetic resonance imaging. Longitudinal data are also available in a subset of 9 participants with a minimum follow-up time of 1 year. Our dataset aims to support imaging biomarker studies on younger individuals potentially at risk for AD and to advance work in tauopathies affecting non-geriatric populations generally excluded from neurodegeneration studies.

PMID:42401601 | DOI:10.1038/s41597-026-07656-8

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