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Microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) of the MAP2/Tau family include the vertebrate proteins MAP2, MAP4, and Tau and homologs in other animals. All three vertebrate members of the family have alternative splice forms; all isoforms share a conserved carboxy-terminal domain containing microtubule-binding repeats, and an amino-terminal projection domain of varying size. MAP2 and Tau are found in neurons, whereas MAP4 is present in many other tissues but is generally absent from neurons. Members of the family are best known for their microtubule-stabilizing activity and for proposed roles regulating microtubule networks in the axons and dendrites of neurons. Contrary to this simple, traditional view, accumulating evidence suggests a much broader range of functions, such as binding to filamentous (F) actin, recruitment of signaling proteins, and regulation of microtubule-mediated transport. Tau is also implicated in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. The ability of MAP2 to interact with both microtubules and F-actin might be critical for neuromorphogenic processes, such as neurite initiation, during which networks of microtubules and F-actin are reorganized in a coordinated manner. Various upstream kinases and interacting proteins have been identified that regulate the microtubule-stabilizing activity of MAP2/Tau family proteins.
Microtubule-associated protein tau is hyperphosphorylated and aggregated in affected neurons in Alzheimer disease (AD) brains. The tau pathology starts from the entorhinal cortex (EC), spreads to the hippocampus and frontal and temporal cortices, and finally to all isocortex areas, but the cerebellum is spared from tau lesions. The molecular basis of differential vulnerability of different brain regions to tau pathology is not understood. In the present study, we analyzed brain regional expressions of tau and tau pathology-related proteins. We found that tau was hyperphosphorylated at multiple sites in the frontal cortex (FC), but not in the cerebellum, from AD brain. The level of tau expression in the cerebellum was about 1/4 of that seen in the frontal and temporal cortices in human brain. In the rat brain, the expression level of tau with three microtubule-binding repeats (3R-tau) was comparable in the hippocampus, EC, FC, parietal-temporal cortex (PTC), occipital-temporal cortex (OTC), striatum, thalamus, olfactory bulb (OB) and cerebellum. However, the expression level of 4R-tau was the highest in the EC and the lowest in the cerebellum. Tau phosphatases, kinases, microtubule-related proteins and other tau pathology-related proteins were also expressed in a region-specific manner in the rat brain. These results suggest that higher levels of tau and tau kinases in the EC and low levels of these proteins in the cerebellum may accounts for the vulnerability and resistance of these representative brain regions to the development of tau pathology, respectively. The present study provides the regional expression profiles of tau and tau pathology-related proteins in the brain, which may help understand the brain regional vulnerability to tau pathology in neurodegenerative tauopathies.
There is a fundamental gap in understanding the consequences of tau-ribosome interactions. Tau oligomers and filaments hinder protein synthesis in vitro, and they associate strongly with ribosomes in vivo. Here, we investigated the consequences of tau interactions with ribosomes in transgenic mice, in cells, and in human brain tissues to identify tau as a direct modulator of ribosomal selectivity. First, we performed microarrays and nascent proteomics to measure changes in protein synthesis. Using regulatable rTg4510 tau transgenic mice, we determined that tau expression differentially shifts both the transcriptome and the nascent proteome, and that the synthesis of ribosomal proteins is reversibly dependent on tau levels. We further extended these results to human brains and found that tau pathologically interacts with ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6 or S6), a crucial regulator of translation. Consequently, protein synthesis under translational control of rpS6 was reduced under tauopathic conditions in Alzheimer's disease brains. Our data establish tau as a driver of RNA translation selectivity. Moreover, since regulation of protein synthesis is critical for learning and memory, aberrant tau-ribosome interactions in disease could explain the linkage between tauopathies and cognitive impairment.
For unknown reasons, humans appear to be particular susceptible to developing tau pathology leading to neurodegeneration. Transgenic mice are still undoubtedly the most popular and extensively used animal models for studying Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. While these murine models generally overexpress human tau in the mouse brain or specific brain regions, there are differences between endogenous mouse tau and human tau protein. Among them, a main difference between human and mouse tau is the presence of a short motif spanning residues 18 to 28 in the human tau protein that is missing in murine tau, and which could be at least partially responsible for that different susceptibility across species. Here we report novel data using affinity chromatography analysis indicating that the sequence containing human tau residues 18 to 28 acts a binding motif for End Binding proteins and that this interaction could facilitate tau secretion to the extracellular space.
Human Tau (hTau) is a highly soluble and natively unfolded protein that binds to microtubules within neurons. Its dysfunction and aggregation into insoluble paired helical filaments is involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), constituting, together with accumulated β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, a hallmark of the disease. Deciphering both the loss-of-function and toxic gain-of-function of hTau proteins is crucial to further understand the mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in AD. As the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster expresses Tau proteins (dTau) that are homologous to hTau, we aimed to better comprehend dTau functions by generating a specific tau knock-out (KO) fly line using homologous recombination. We observed that the specific removal of endogenous dTau proteins did not lead to overt, macroscopic phenotypes in flies. Indeed, survival, climbing ability and neuronal function were unchanged in tau KO flies. In addition, we did not find any overt positive or negative effect of dTau removal on human Aβ-induced toxicity. Altogether, our results indicate that the absence of dTau proteins has no major functional impact on flies, and suggests that our tau KO strain is a relevant model to further investigate the role of dTau proteins in vivo, thereby giving additional insights into hTau functions.
Accumulation of hyperphosphorylated Tau is associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases collectively known as tauopathies. Differences in clinical and cognitive profiles among them suggest differential sensitivity of neuronal populations to Tau levels, phosphorylation and mutations. We used tissue specific expression of wild type and mutant human tau transgenes to demonstrate differential phosphorylation and stability in a cell type-specific manner, which includes different neuronal types and does not correlate with the level of accumulated protein. Rather, they likely reflect the spatial distribution or regulation of Tau-targeting kinases and phosphatases.
Tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease and fronto-temporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), are a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the presence of intraneuronal filamentous inclusions of aberrantly phosphorylated-tau. Tau is a neuronal microtubule-associated protein involved in microtubule assembly and stabilization. Currently, the molecular mechanisms underlying tau-mediated cellular toxicity remain elusive. To address the determinants of tau neurotoxicity, we first characterized the cellular alterations resulting from the over-expression of a mutant form of human tau associated with FTDP-17 (tau V337M) in Drosophila. We found that the over-expression of tau V337M, in Drosophila larval motor neurons, induced disruption of the microtubular network at presynaptic nerve terminals and changes in neuromuscular junctions morphological features. Secondly, we performed a misexpression screen to identify genetic modifiers of the tau V337M-mediated rough eye phenotype. The screening of 1250 mutant Drosophila lines allowed us to identify several components of the cytoskeleton, and particularly from the actin network, as specific modifiers of tau V337M-induced neurodegeneration. Furthermore, we found that numerous tau modulators identified in our screen were involved in the maintenance of synaptic function. Taken together, these findings suggest that disruption of the microtubule network in presynaptic nerve terminals could constitute early events in the pathological process leading to synaptic dysfunction in tau V337M pathology.
The development of insoluble, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau is a defining feature of tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accumulating evidence suggests that tau pathology co-localizes with RNA binding proteins (RBPs) that are known markers for stress granules (SGs). Here we used proteomics to determine how the network of tau binding proteins changes with disease in the rTg4510 mouse, and then followed up with immunohistochemistry to identify RNA binding proteins that co-localize with tau pathology. The tau interactome networks revealed striking disease-related changes in interactions between tau and a multiple RBPs, and biochemical fractionation studies demonstrated that many of these proteins including hnRNPA0, EWSR1, PABP and RPL7 form insoluble aggregates as tau pathology develops. Immunohistochemical analysis of mouse and human brain tissues suggest a model of evolving pathological interaction, in which RBPs co-localize with pathological phospho-tau but occur adjacent to larger pathological tau inclusions. We suggest a model in which tau initially interacts with RBPs in small complexes, but evolves into isolated aggregated inclusions as tau pathology matures.
Oligomeric assemblies of tau and the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) Musashi (MSI) are reported in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the role of MSI and tau interaction in their aggregation process and its effects are nor clearly known in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we investigated the expression and cellular localization of MSI1 and MSI2 in the brains tissues of Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) as well as in the wild-type mice and tau knock-out and P301L tau mouse models. We observed that formation of pathologically relevant protein inclusions was driven by the aberrant interactions between MSI and tau in the nuclei associated with age-dependent extracellular depositions of tau/MSI complexes. Furthermore, tau and MSI interactions induced impairment of nuclear/cytoplasm transport, chromatin remodeling and nuclear lamina formation. Our findings provide mechanistic insight for pathological accumulation of MSI/tau aggregates providing a potential basis for therapeutic interventions in neurodegenerative proteinopathies.
Although accumulation of misfolded tau species has been shown to predict cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies but with the remarkable diversity of clinical manifestations, neuropathology profiles, and time courses of disease progression remaining unexplained by current genetic data. We considered the diversity of misfolded tau conformers present in individual AD cases as an underlying driver of the phenotypic variations of AD and progressive loss of synapses.
Abnormalities in brain glucose metabolism and accumulation of abnormal protein deposits called plaques and tangles are neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their relationship to disease pathogenesis and to each other remains unclear. Here we show that succinylation, a metabolism-associated post-translational protein modification (PTM), provides a potential link between abnormal metabolism and AD pathology. We quantified the lysine succinylomes and proteomes from brains of individuals with AD, and healthy controls. In AD, succinylation of multiple mitochondrial proteins declined, and succinylation of small number of cytosolic proteins increased. The largest increases occurred at critical sites of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and microtubule-associated tau. We show that in vitro, succinylation of APP disrupted its normal proteolytic processing thereby promoting Aβ accumulation and plaque formation and that succinylation of tau promoted its aggregation to tangles and impaired microtubule assembly. In transgenic mouse models of AD, elevated succinylation associated with soluble and insoluble APP derivatives and tau. These findings indicate that a metabolism-linked PTM may be associated with AD.
Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that is highly soluble and natively unfolded. Its dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD), where it aggregates within neurons. Deciphering the physiological and pathogenic roles of human Tau (hTau) is crucial to further understand the mechanisms leading to its dysfunction in vivo. We have used a knock-out/knock-in strategy in Drosophila to generate a strain with hTau inserted into the endogenous fly tau locus and expressed under the control of the endogenous fly tau promoter, thus avoiding potential toxicity due to genetic over-expression. hTau knock-in (KI) proteins were expressed at normal, endogenous levels, bound to fly microtubules and were post-translationally modified, hence displaying physiological properties. We used this new model to investigate the effects of acetylation on hTau toxicity in vivo. The simultaneous pseudo-acetylation of hTau at lysines 163, 280, 281 and 369 drastically decreased hTau phosphorylation and significantly reduced its binding to microtubules in vivo. These molecular alterations were associated with ameliorated amyloid beta toxicity. Our results indicate acetylation of hTau on multiple sites regulates its biology and ameliorates amyloid beta toxicity in vivo.
Despite the demonstration that amyloid-β (Aβ) can trigger increased tau phosphorylation and neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation in vivo, the molecular link associating Aβ and tau pathologies remains ill defined. Here, we observed that exposure of cultured primary neurons to Aβ trimers isolated from brain tissue of subjects with Alzheimer's disease led to a specific conformational change of tau detected by the antibody Alz50. A similar association was supported by postmortem human brain analyses. To study the role of Aβ trimers in vivo, we created a novel bigenic Tg-Aβ+Tau mouse line by crossing Tg2576 (Tg-Aβ) and rTg4510 (Tg-Tau) mice. Before neurodegeneration and amyloidosis, apparent Aβ trimers were increased by ∼2-fold in 3-month-old Tg-Aβ and Tg-Aβ+Tau mice compared with younger mice, whereas soluble monomeric Aβ levels were unchanged. Under these conditions, the expression of soluble Alz50-tau conformers rose by ∼2.2-fold in the forebrains of Tg-Aβ+Tau mice compared with nontransgenic littermates. In parallel, APP accumulated intracellularly, suggestive of a putative dysfunction of anterograde axonal transport. We found that the protein abundance of the kinesin-1 light chain (KLC1) was reduced selectively in vivo and in vitro when soluble Aβ trimers/Alz50-tau were present. Importantly, the reduction in KLC1 was prevented by the intraneuronal delivery of Alz50 antibodies. Collectively, our findings reveal that specific soluble conformers of Aβ and tau cooperatively disrupt axonal transport independently from plaques and tangles. Finally, these results suggest that not all endogenous Aβ oligomers trigger the same deleterious changes and that the role of each assembly should be considered separately.
Tau is a hallmark pathology of Alzheimer's disease, and animal models have suggested that tau spreads from cell to cell through neuronal connections, facilitated by β-amyloid (Aβ). We test this hypothesis in humans using an epidemic spreading model (ESM) to simulate tau spread, and compare these simulations to observed patterns measured using tau-PET in 312 individuals along Alzheimer's disease continuum. Up to 70% of the variance in the overall spatial pattern of tau can be explained by our model. Surprisingly, the ESM predicts the spatial patterns of tau irrespective of whether brain Aβ is present, but regions with greater Aβ burden show greater tau than predicted by connectivity patterns, suggesting a role of Aβ in accelerating tau spread. Altogether, our results provide evidence in humans that tau spreads through neuronal communication pathways even in normal aging, and that this process is accelerated by the presence of brain Aβ.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation in the brain of intraneuronal aggregates of abnormally and hyperphosphorylated tau proteins and of extracellular deposits of amyloid-β surrounded by dystrophic neurites. Numerous experimental models have shown that tau pathology develops in the brain after intracerebral injection of brain homogenates or pathological tau [paired helical filaments (PHF)-tau)] from AD brains. Further investigations are however necessary to identify or exclude potential extracerebral routes of tau pathology transmission, e.g., through the intravascular route. In this study, we have analyzed the effect of intravenous injection of PHF-tau proteins from AD brains on the formation of tau and amyloid pathologies in the brain of wild-type (WT) mice and of 5XFAD mice (an amyloid model). We observed that 5XFAD mice with a disrupted blood-brain barrier showed increased plaque-associated astrogliosis, microgliosis, and increased deposits of Aβ40 and Aβ42 after intravenous injection of PHF-tau proteins. In addition, an increased phosphotau immunoreactivity was observed in plaque-associated dystrophic neurites. These results suggest that blood products contaminated by PHF-tau proteins could potentially induce an exacerbation of neuroinflammation and AD pathologies.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that manifests as abnormal behavior and a progressive decline in memory. Although the pathogenesis of AD is due to the excessive deposition of amyloid β protein (Aβ) outside the neurons in the brain, evidence suggests that tau proteins may be a better target for AD therapy. In neurodegenerative diseases, a decrease in autophagy results in the failure to eliminate abnormally deposited or misfolded proteins. Therefore, induction of autophagy may be an effective way to eliminate tau proteins in the treatment of AD. We investigated the effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-ceramide nanomicelles on autophagy and on tau proteins in N2a, a murine neuroblastoma metrocyte cell line.
Primary cilia are organelles necessary for proper implementation of developmental and homeostasis processes. To initiate their assembly, coordinated actions of multiple proteins are needed. Tau tubulin kinase 2 (TTBK2) is a key player in the cilium assembly pathway, controlling the final step of cilia initiation. The function of TTBK2 in ciliogenesis is critically dependent on its kinase activity; however, the precise mechanism of TTBK2 action has so far not been fully understood due to the very limited information about its relevant substrates. In this study, we demonstrate that CEP83, CEP89, CCDC92, Rabin8, and DVL3 are substrates of TTBK2 kinase activity. Further, we characterize a set of phosphosites of those substrates and CEP164 induced by TTBK2 in vitro and in vivo. Intriguingly, we further show that identified TTBK2 phosphosites and consensus sequence delineated from those are distinct from motifs previously assigned to TTBK2. Finally, we show that TTBK2 is also required for efficient phosphorylation of many S/T sites in CEP164 and provide evidence that TTBK2-induced phosphorylations of CEP164 modulate its function, which in turn seems relevant for the process of cilia formation. In summary, our work provides important insight into the substrates-TTBK2 kinase relationship and suggests that phosphorylation of substrates on multiple sites by TTBK2 is probably involved in the control of ciliogenesis in human cells.
Total tau (t-tau) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) protein elevations in cerebrospinal fluid (CFS) are well-established hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), while the associations of serum t-tau and p-tau levels with AD have been inconsistent across studies. To identify more accessible non-invasive AD biomarkers, we measured serum tau proteins and associations with cognitive function in age-matched controls (AMC, n = 26), mild cognitive impairment group (MCI, n = 30), and mild-AD group (n = 20) according to the Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), and Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) scores. Serum t-tau, but not p-tau, was significantly higher in the mild-AD group than AMC subjects (p < 0.05), and there were significant correlations of serum t-tau with MMSE and GDS scores. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis distinguished mild-AD from AMC subjects with moderate sensitivity and specificity (AUC = 0.675). We speculated that tau proteins in neuronal cell-derived exosomes (NEX) isolated from serum would be more strongly associated with brain tau levels and disease characteristics, as these exosomes can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Indeed, ELISA and Western blotting indicated that both NEX t-tau and p-tau (S202) were significantly higher in the mild-AD group compared to AMC (p < 0.05) and MCI groups (p < 0.01). In contrast, serum amyloid β (Aβ1-42) was lower in the mild-AD group compared to MCI groups (p < 0.001). During the 4-year follow-up, NEX t-tau and p-tau (S202) levels were correlated with the changes in GDS and MMSE scores. In JNPL3 transgenic (Tg) mice expressing a human tau mutation, t-tau and p-tau expression levels in NEX increased with neuropathological progression, and NEX tau was correlated with tau in brain tissue exosomes (tEX), suggesting that tau proteins reach the circulation via exosomes. Taken together, our data suggest that serum tau proteins, especially NEX tau proteins, are useful biomarkers for monitoring AD progression.
In Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementias, the microtubule-associated protein Tau forms intracellular paired helical filaments. The filaments can form not only by the full-length human Tau protein, but also by the three repeated (K19) or four repeated (K18) Tau segments. However, of interest, experimentally, K19 can seed K18, but not vice versa. To obtain insight into the cross-seeding between K18 and K19 aggregates, here, K18 and K19 octamers with repeat 3 (R3) in U-shaped, L-shaped, and long straight line-shaped (SL-shape) conformations are assembled into different structures. The simulation results show that K18-8/K19-8 (K18 and K19 assemblies number 8) with R3 in an L shape and K18-9/K19-9 with R3 in an SL shape are highly populated and present the highest structural similarity among all simulated K18 and K19 octamers, suggesting that similar folding of K18/K19 may serve as structural core for the K18-K19 co-assembled heterogeneous filament. We demonstrate that formation of stable R2 and R3 conformations is the critical step for K18 aggregation, and R3 is critical for K19 fibrillization. The different core units in K18 and K19 may create a cross-seeding barrier for the K18 seed to trigger K19 fibril growth because R2 is not available for K19. Our study provides insights into cross-seeding involving heterogeneous structures. The polymorphic nature of protein aggregation could be magnified in the cross-seeding process. If the seeding conformations lead to too much divergence in the energy landscape, it could impede fibril formation. Such an effect could also contribute to the asymmetric barrier between K18 and K19.
Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the presence of aggregates of abnormally phosphorylated Tau. Deciphering the pathophysiological mechanisms that lead from the alteration of Tau biology to neuronal death depends on the identification of Tau cellular partners. Combining genetic and transcriptomic analyses in Drosophila, we identified 77 new modulators of human Tau-induced toxicity, bringing to 301 the number of Tau genetic interactors identified so far in flies. Network analysis showed that 229 of these genetic modulators constitute a connected network. The addition of 77 new genes strengthened the network structure, increased the intergenic connectivity and brought up key hubs with high connectivities, namely Src64B/FYN, Src42A/FRK, kuz/ADAM10, heph/PTBP1, scrib/SCRIB, and Cam/CALM3. Interestingly, we established for the first time a genetic link between Tau-induced toxicity and ADAM10, a recognized Alzheimer Disease protective factor. In addition, our data support the importance of the presynaptic compartment in mediating Tau toxicity.
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