Tau Proteins and Tauopathies in Alzheimer’s Disease

Jan 5, 2018Cellular and molecular neurobiology

Tau Proteins and Their Role in Alzheimer’s Disease

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Abstract

Tau-directed therapies may offer new potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is marked by memory loss and cognitive deficits linked to amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
Previous therapies targeting amyloid-β have shown limited success in human clinical trials despite efficacy in animal models.
Tauopathies are associated with dementia and have become a focus for developing new treatments.
Immunotherapy has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing tau pathology and improving cognitive function in animal studies.
Recent advances in tau research highlight the importance of understanding tau proteins and their role in Alzheimer's disease.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive memory loss and cognitive function deficits. There are two major pathological hallmarks that contribute to the pathogenesis of AD which are the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques composed of amyloid-β (Aβ) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau. Despite extensive research that has been done on Aβ in the last two decades, therapies targeting Aβ were not very fruitful at treating AD as the efficacy of Aβ therapies observed in animal models is not reflected in human clinical trials. Hence, tau-directed therapies have received tremendous attention as the potential treatments for AD. Tauopathies are closely correlated with dementia and immunotherapy has been effective at reducing tau pathology and improving cognitive deficits in animal models. Thus, in this review article, we discussed the pathological mechanism of tau proteins, the key factors contributing to tauopathies, and therapeutic approaches for tauopathies in AD based on the recent progress in tau-based research.

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Tau Proteins and Tauopathies in Alzheimer’s Disease

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