Rationale for Tau-Aggregation Inhibitor Therapy in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Tauopathies

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible, neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the progressive loss of memory and thinking skills. It was first presented at a meeting in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, who discovered ‘‘neurofibrillary tangles’’ in the brain tissue of a woman who died with dementia at the age of 55. It was not until the tangle could be isolated and purified that its structure and composition could be determined. The neurofibrillary tangles are composed predominantly of tau protein, a protein essential for neuronal shape and axonal transport and the aggregation of tau is closely linked both to clinical dementia and cell death. These findings have also been affirmed by others in the field.