Abstract
Extracellular accumulations of Aβ, hyperphosphorylation of tau and intracellular neurofibrillary tangle formation have been the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Although tau and its phosphorylation play a pivotal role in the normal physiology yet its hyperphosphorylation has been a pathological manifestation in neurodegenerative disorders like AD. In this review physiology of tau, its phosphorylation, hyperphosphorylation with the intervention of various kinases, aggregation and formation of paired helical filaments has been discussed. A brief account of various animal models employed to study the pathological manifestation of tau in AD and therapeutic strategies streamlined to counter the tau induced pathology has been given. The reasons for the failure to have suitable animal model to study AD pathology and recent success in achieving this has been included. The role of caspase cascade in tau cleavage has been emphasized. The summary of current studies on tau and the need for future studies has been accentuated.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gotz J, Schild A, Hoerndli F et al (2004) Amyloid-induced neurofibrillary tangle formation in Alzheimer’s disease: insight from transgenic mouse and tissue-culture models. Int J Dev Neurosci 22:453–465
Obulesu M, Rao DM, Shamasundar NM (2009) Studies on genomic DNA stability in aluminium maltolate treated aged New Zealand rabbit: relevance to the Alzheimer’s animal model. J Clin Med Res 1:212–218
Obulesu M, Rao DM (2010) Animal models of Alzheimer’s disease: an understanding of pathology and therapeutic avenues. Int J Neurosci 120:531–537
Obulesu M, Rao DM (2010) DNA damage and impairment of DNA repair in Alzheimer’s disease. Int J Neurosci 120:397–403
Maria Jose Metcalfe MS, Figueiredo-Pereira ME (2010) Relationship between tau pathology and neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease. Mt Sinai Med J 77:50–58
Suzuki K, Terry RD (1967) Fine structural localization of acidphosphatase in senile plaques in Alzheimer’s presenile dementia. Acta Neuropathol 8:276–284
Praprotnik D, Smith MA, Richey PL et al (1996) Filament heterogeneity within the dystrophic neurites of senile plaques suggests blockage of fast axonal transport in Alzheimer’s disease. Acta Neuropathol 91:226–235
Stokin GB, Goldstein LS (2006) Axonal transport and Alzheimer’s disease. Annu Rev Biochem 75:607–627
Cowan CM, Chee F, Shepherd D et al (2010) Disruption of neuronal function by soluble hyperphosphorylated tau in a Drosophila model of tauopathy. Biochem Soc Trans 38:564–570
Cleveland DW, Hwo SY, Kirschner MW (1977) Physical and chemical properties of purified tau factor and the role of tau in microtubule assembly. J Mol Biol 116:227–247
Grundke-Iqbal I, Iqbal K, Quinlan M et al (1986) Microtubule-associated protein tau: a component of Alzheimer paired helical filaments. J Biol Chem 261:6084–6089
Grundke-Iqbal I, Iqbal K, Tung YC et al (1986) Abnormal phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau (τ) in Alzheimer cytoskeletal pathology. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:4913–4917
Bramblett GT, Goedert M, Jakes R et al (1993) Abnormal tau phosphorylation at Ser396 in Alzheimer’s disease recapitulates development and contributes to reduced microtubule binding. Neuron 10:1089–1099
Goedert M, Spillantini MG, Potier MC et al (1989) Cloning and sequencing of the cDNA encoding an isoform of microtubule-associated protein tau containing four tandem repeats: differential expression of tau protein mRNAs in human brain. EMBO J 8:393–399
Jaworski T, Dewachter I, Seymour CM et al (2010) Alzheimer’s disease: old problem, new views from transgenic and viral models. Biochim Biophys Acta 1802:808–818
Mandelkow E, von Bergen M, Biernat J et al (2007) Structural principles of tau and the paired helical filaments of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Pathol 17:83–90
Rosenberg KJ, Ross JL, Feinstein HE et al (2008) Complementary dimerization of microtubule-associated tau protein: implications for microtubule bundling and tau-mediated pathogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:7445–7450
Weingarten MD, Lockwood AH, Hwo SY et al (1975) A protein factor essential for microtubule assembly. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72:1858–1862
Medeiros R, Baglietto-Vargas D, Laferla FM (2010) The role of tau in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. CNS Neurosci Ther (in press)
Li HL, Wang HH, Liu SJ et al (2007) Phosphorylation of tau antagonizes apoptosis by stabilizing beta-catenin: a mechanism involved in Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:3591–3596
Gomez-Ramos A, Smith MA, Perry G et al (2004) Tau phosphorylation and assembly. Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars) 64:33–39
Johnson GV, Stoothoff WH (2004) Tau phosphorylation in neuronal cell function and dysfunction. J Cell Sci 117:5721–5729
Tian Q, Wang J (2002) Role of serine/threonine protein phosphatase in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurosignals 11:262–269
Iqbal K, Grundke-Iqbal I, Zaidi T et al (1986) Defective brain microtubule assembly in Alzheimer’s disease. Lancet 2:421–426
Kopke E, Tung YC, Shaikh S et al (1993) Microtubule-associated protein tau: abnormal phosphorylation of a non-paired helical filament pool in Alzheimer disease. J Biol Chem 268:24374–24384
Sengupta A, Kabat J, Novak M et al (1998) Phosphorylation of tau at both Thr 231 and Ser 262 is required for maximal inhibition of its binding to microtubules. Arch Biochem Biophys 357:299–309
Wang JZ, Grundke-Iqbal I, Iqbal K (2007) Kinases and phosphatases and tau sites involved in Alzheimer neurofibrillary degeneration. Eur J Neurosci 25:59–68
Diaz-Hernandez M, Gomez-Ramos A, Rubio A et al (2010) Tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase promotes the neurotoxicity effect of extracellular tau. J Biol Chem 285:32539–32548
Gamblin TC, Chen F, Zambrano A et al (2003) Caspase cleavage of tau: linking amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100:10032–10037
Eckert A, Keil U, Marques CA et al (2003) Mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptotic cell death, and Alzheimer’s disease. Biochem Pharmacol 66:1627–1634
Rissman RA, Poon WW, Blurton-Jones M et al (2004) Caspase-cleavage of tau is an early event in Alzheimer disease tangle pathology. J Clin Invest 114:121–130
Guillozet-Bongaarts AL, Cahill ME, Cryns VL et al (2006) Seudophosphorylation of tau at serine 422 inhibits caspase cleavage: in vitro evidence and implications for tangle formation in vivo. J Neurochem 97:1005–1014
Rohn TT, Rissman RA, Davis MC et al (2002) Caspase-9 activation and caspase cleavage of tau in the Alzheimer’s disease brain. Neurobiol Dis 11:341–354
Rapoport M, Dawson HN, Binder LI et al (2002) Tau is essential to beta-amyloid-induced neurotoxicity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99:6364–6369
Yoshiyama Y, Higuchi M, Zhang B et al (2007) Synapse loss and microglial activation precede tangles in a P301S tauopathy mouse model. Neuron 53:337–351
Arnaud L, Robakis NK, Figueiredo-Pereira ME (2006) It may take inflammation, phosphorylation and ubiquitination to ‘tangle’ in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurodegener Dis 3:313–319
Wang Y, Martinez-Vicente M, Kruger U et al (2009) Tau fragmentation, aggregation and clearance: the dual role of lysosomal processing. Hum Mol Genet 18:4153–4170
Li L, Zhang X, Le W (2010) Autophagy dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurodegener Dis 7:265–271
Oddo S, Billings L, Kesslak JP et al (2004) Abeta immunotherapy leads to clearance of early, but not late, hyperphosphorylated tau aggregates via the proteasome. Neuron 43:321–332
Kitazawa M, Oddo S, Yamasaki TR et al (2005) Lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation exacerbates tau pathology by a cyclin-dependent kinase 5-mediated pathway in a transgenic model of Alzheimer’s disease. J Neurosci 25:8843–8853
Caccamo A, Oddo S, Billings LM et al (2006) M1 receptors play a central role in modulating AD-like pathology in transgenic mice. Neuron 49:671–682
Gong CX, Liu F, Grundke-Iqbal I et al (2006) Impaired brain glucose metabolism leads to Alzheimer neurofibrillary degeneration through a decrease in tau O-GlcNAcylation. J Alzheimers Dis 9:1–12
Liu F, Shi J, Tanimukai H et al (2009) Reduced O-GlcNAcylation links lower brain glucose metabolism and tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 132:1820–1832
Fonseca MI, Ager RR, Chu SH et al (2009) Treatment with a C5aR antagonist decreases pathology and enhances behavioral performance in murine models of Alzheimer’s disease. J Immunol 183:1375–1383
Narayanan RL, Dur UH, Bibow S et al (2010) Automatic assignment of the intrinsically disordered protein tau with 441-residues. J Am Chem Soc 132:11906–11907
Maccioni RB, Farias G, Morales I et al (2010) The revitalized tau hypothesis on Alzheimer’s disease. Arch Med Res 41:226–231
Souter S, Lee G (2010) Tubulin-independent tau in Alzheimer’s disease and cancer: implications for disease pathogenesis and treatment. Curr Alzheimer Res 7:697–707
Dolan PJ, Johnson GV (2010) A caspase cleaved form of tau is preferentially degraded through the autophagy pathway. J Biol Chem 285:21978–21987
Wang HH, Li HL, Liu R et al (2010) Tau overexpression inhibits cell apoptosis with the mechanisms involving multiple viability-related factors. J Alzheimers Dis 21:167–179
Ashe KH, Zahs KR (2010) Probing the biology of alzheimer’s disease in mice. Neuron 66:631–645
Dawson HN, Ferreira A, Eyster MV et al (2001) Inhibition of neuronal maturation in primary hippocampal neurons from tau deficient mice. J Cell Sci 114:1179–1187
Harada A, Oguchi K, Okabe S et al (1994) Altered microtubule organization in small-calibre axons of mice lacking tau protein. Nature 369:488–491
Boekhoorn K, Terwel D, Biemans B et al (2006) Improved long-term potentiation and memory in young tau-P301L transgenic mice before onset of hyperphosphorylation and tauopathy. J Neurosci 26:3514–3523
Ikegami S, Harada A, Hirokawa N (2000) Muscle weakness, hyperactivity, and impairment in fear conditioning in tau-deficient mice. Neurosci Lett 279:129–132
Santacruz K, Lewis J, Spires T et al (2005) Tau suppression in a neurodegenerative mouse model improves memory function. Science 309:476–481
Spires TL, Orne JD, SantaCruz K et al (2006) Region-specific dissociation of neuronal loss and neurofibrillary pathology in a mouse model of tauopathy. Am J Pathol 168:1598–1607
Go mez-Isla T, Hollister R, West H et al (1997) Neuronal loss correlates with but exceeds neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease. Ann Neurol 41:17–24
Andorfer C, Acker CM, Kress Y et al (2005) Cell-cycle reentry and cell death in transgenic mice expressing nonmutant human tau isoforms. J Neurosci 25:5446–5454
Berger Z, Rode H, Hanna A et al (2007) Pathological tau species and memory loss in a conditional model of tauopathy. J Neurosci 27:3650–3662
Rosenmann H, Grigoriadis N, Eldar-Levy H et al (2008) A novel transgenic mouse expressing double mutant tau driven by its natural promoter exhibits tauopathy characteristics. Exp Neurol 212:71–84
Schindowski K, Bretteville A, Leroy K et al (2006) Alzheimer’s disease-like tau neuropathology leads to memory deficits and loss of functional synapses in a novel mutated tau transgenic mouse without any motor deficits. Am J Pathol 169:599–616
Zilka N, Korenova M, Novak M (2009) Misfolded tau protein and disease modifying pathways in transgenic rodent models of human tauopathies. Acta Neuropathol 118:71–86
Taes I, Goris A, Lemmens R et al (2010) Tau levels do not influence human ALS or motor neuron degeneration in the SOD1G93A mouse. Neurology 74:1687–1693
Mudher A, Shepherd D, Newman TA et al (2004) GSK-3β inhibition reverses axonal transport defects and behavioural phenotypes in Drosophila. Mol Psychiatry 9:522–530
Williams DW, Tyrer M, Shepherd D (2000) Tau and tau reporters disrupt central projections of sensory neurons in Drosophila. J Comp Neurol 428:630–640
Wittmann CW, Wszolek MF, Shulman JM et al (2001) Tauopathy in Drosophila: neurodegeneration without neurofibrillary tangles. Science 293:711–714
Muyllaert D, Terwel D, Borghgraef P et al (2006) Transgenic mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease: the role of GSK-3ß in combined amyloid and tau-pathology. Rev Neurol (Paris) 162:903–907
Terwel D, Muyllaert D, Dewachter I et al (2008) Amyloid activates GSK-3β to aggravate neuronal tauopathy in bigenicmice. Am J Pathol 172:786–798
Lewis J, McGowan E, Rockwood J et al (2000) Neurofibrillary tangles, amyotrophy and progressive motor disturbance in mice expressing mutant (P301L) tau protein. Nat Genet 25:402–405
Lewis J, Dickson DW, Lin WL et al (2001) Enhanced neurofibrillary degeneration in transgenic mice expressing mutant tau and APP. Science 293:1487–1491
Van Dorpe J, Smeijers I, Dewachter I et al (2000) Prominent cerebral amyloid angiopathy in transgenic mice overexpressing the London mutant of human APPin neurons. Am J Pathol 157:1283–1298
Moechars D, Dewachter I, Lorent K et al (1999) Early phenotypic changes in transgenic mice that overexpress different mutants of amyloid precursor protein in brain. J Biol Chem 274:6483–6492
Osinde M, Clavaguera F, May-Nass R et al (2008) Lentivirus tau (P301S) expression in adult amyloid precursor protein (APP)-transgenic mice leads to tangle formation. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 24:523–531
Dubois B, Feldman HH, Jacova C et al (2007) Research criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: revising the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Lancet Neurol 6:734–746
Foster TC (2007) Calcium homeostasis and modulation of synaptic plasticity in the aged brain. Aging Cell 6:319–325
Skoulakis EM, Mudher A (2010) Two days of tau: a meeting focused on its biology and pathology. Biochem Soc Trans 38:953–954
Kurz A, Perneczky R (2010) Novel insights for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 35:373–379
Acknowledgments
Authors sincerely thank Dr. Joseph, Chairman, Garden City Group of Institutions, Bangalore for his generous support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Obulesu, M., Venu, R. & Somashekhar, R. Tau Mediated Neurodegeneration: An Insight into Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology. Neurochem Res 36, 1329–1335 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-011-0475-5
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-011-0475-5