Associations Between APOE Variants, Tau and α-Synuclein.

Associations Between APOE Variants, Tau and α-Synuclein. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1184:177-186 Authors: Rodriguez-Vieitez E, Nielsen HM Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the aggregation and deposition of misfolded proteins in the brain, most prominently amyloid-β (Aβ), tau and α-synuclein (α-syn), and are thus referred to as proteinopathies. While tau is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other non-AD tauopathies, and α-synuclein is the pathological feature of the spectrum of synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the presence of co-pathologies is very frequent in all these diseases. Positive and synergistic associations between the different types of protein deposits have been reported, leading to worse prognosis and cognitive decline. A large variation in phenotypic clinical presentation of these diseases, largely due to the frequent presence of co-pathologies, makes differential diagnosis challenging. The observed clinico-pathological overlaps suggest common underlying mechanisms, in part due to shared genetic risk factors. The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein (APOE) gene is one of the major genetic risk factors for the sporadic forms of proteinopathies, but the biological mechanisms linking APOE, tau and α-syn are not fully understood. This chapter describes current experimental evidence on the relations...
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research