Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases associated with the microtubule-associated protein tau, with Alzheimer's disease (AD) being the most prevalent related disorder. Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are one of the neuropathological hallmarks present in the brains of AD patients. Because NFTs are aberrant intracellular inclusions formed by hyperphosphorylated tau, it was initially...

The abnormal deposition of proteins in and around neurons is a common pathological feature of many neurodegenerative diseases. Among these pathological proteins, the microtubule-associated protein tau forms intraneuronal filaments in a spectrum of neurological disorders. The discovery that dominant mutations in the MAPT gene encoding tau are associated with familial frontotemporal dementia stro...

Background: Tau protein is believed to be stationary while bound to microtubules. Results: Tau molecules can diffuse along microtubules over distances up to several micrometers. Conclusion: Tau diffusion on microtubules is a novel mechanism for tau dispersion in cells. Significance: Modulation of tau binding and diffusion on microtubules by local modifications of microtubules can provide a tool...

Aggregation and accumulation of the microtubule-associated protein tau are associated with cognitive decline and neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Thus, preventing the transition of tau from a soluble state to insoluble aggregates and/or reversing the toxicity of existing aggregates would represent a reasonable therapeutic strategy for treating these neurodegen...

Tau, a microtubule-associated protein, is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in regard to both neurofibrillary tangle formation and neuronal network hyperexcitability. The genetic ablation of tau substantially reduces hyperexcitability in AD mouse lines, induced seizure models, and genetic in vivo models of epilepsy. These data demonstrate that tau is an important regula...

OBJECTIVE To compare the respective efficiency of CSF tau (quantitative) and CSF 14-3-3 protein (qualitative) in the diagnosis of prion disease. METHODS We made measurements on 420 live subjects, who subsequently underwent a postmortem neuropathology examination, including protein chemistry, immunohistochemistry, and histology. We performed tau by ELISA. We detected 14-3-3 protein by Western ...

Microtubule-associated protein tau from bovine brain reacted on immunoblots and on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a monoclonal antibody, Alz 50, which has previously been found to bind to an Alzheimer disease-specific antigen. The apparent affinity of binding of Alz 50 to tau was 2.1 X 10(-9) M on competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and it was in the same range as for Tau-1 (...

Tau is a neuronal protein that stabilizes the microtubule (MT) network, but it also forms filaments associated with Alzheimer's disease. Understanding Tau-MT and Tau-Tau interactions would help to establish Tau function in health and disease. For many years, literature reports on Tau-MT binding behavior and affinity have remained surprisingly contradictory (e.g., 10-fold variation in Tau-MT aff...