Brain cell activity regulates Alzheimers protein

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Feb-2014

Contact: Michael C. Purdy purdym@wustl.edu 314-286-0122 Washington University School of Medicine

Increased brain cell activity boosts brain fluid levels of a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to new research from scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Tau protein is the main component of neurofibrillary tangles, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. It has been linked to other neurodegenerative disorders, including frontotemporal dementia, supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration.

"Healthy brain cells normally release tau into the cerebrospinal fluid and the interstitial fluid that surrounds them, but this is the first time we've linked that release in living animals to brain cell activity," said senior author David M. Holtzman, MD. "Understanding this link should help advance our efforts to treat Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with the tau protein.

The study appears online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Tau protein stabilizes microtubules, which are long columns that transport supplies from the center of the cell to the distant ends of the cell's branches. Some tau in the cell is not bound to microtubules. This tau can become altered and clump together inside brain cells, forming structures called tangles. Scientists have tracked the spread of these clumps through brain networks in animal models.

"In Alzheimer's disease, you first see clumps of tau in a region called the entorhinal cortex, and then in the hippocampus, and it continues to spread through the brain in a regular pattern," said Holtzman, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology. "In another disorder, supranuclear palsy, tau clumps first appear in the brain stem and then spread to regions that the brain stem projects to."

These regular patterns of tau spread through brain networks have led scientists to speculate that dysfunctional tau travels to different brain regions via synapses the areas where individual nerve cells communicate with each other.

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Brain cell activity regulates Alzheimers protein