Toxic Tau Aggregates Alter Cell Nucleus Structure in Harmful Ways

The set of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by aggregation of altered tau protein are collectively known as tauopathies. Alzheimer's disease is the best known of these conditions. The later stage of Alzheimer's disease, in which cell death is widespread, is characterized by tau aggregation and chronic inflammation of brain tissue. As noted here, how exactly tau alteration and aggregation causes dysfunction is still an active area of research that may result in ways to sabotage the progression of tauopathies. Tauopathies are characterized by the buildup of tau inside the brain. Alzheimer's disease is well known, but there are many other tauopathies, including frontotemporal lobar degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. These diseases typically present as dementia, personality changes and/or movement problems. "A lot of fantastic research has been done to learn how toxic tau spreads from neuron to neuron in the brain, but very little is known about exactly how this toxic tau damages neurons, and that question is the motivation for our new paper. The toxic tau described here is actually released from neurons, so if we can figure out how to intercept it when it's floating around in the brain outside of neurons, using antibodies or other drugs, it might be possible to slow or halt progression of Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies." Researchers discovered that tau oligomers - assemblages of multiple tau prot...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs