Question

Role of the tau-associated mapt gene in alzheimers

Answer 1

Tau, the microtubule-associated protein, forms insoluble filaments that accumulate as neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies. Under physiological conditions, tau regulates the assembly and maintenance of the structural stability of microtubules. In the diseased brain, however, tau becomes abnormally hyperphosphorylated, which ultimately causes the microtubules to disassemble, and the free tau molecules aggregate into paired helical filaments. A large body of evidence suggests that tau hyperphosphorylation results from perturbation of cellular signaling, mainly through imbalance in the activities of different protein kinases and phosphatases. In AD, it appears that ß-amyloid peptide (Aß) plays a pivotal role in triggering this imbalance. I