The neurotoxic role of extracellular tau protein

Abstract

Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases associated with the microtubule-associated protein tau, with Alzheimer's disease (AD) being the most prevalent related disorder. Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are one of the neuropathological hallmarks present in the brains of AD patients. Because NFTs are aberrant intracellular inclusions formed by hyperphosphorylated tau, it was initially proposed that phosphorylated and/or aggregated intracellular tau protein was causative of neuronal death. However, recent studies suggest a toxic role for non-phosphorylated and non-aggregated tau when it is located in the brain extracellular space. In this work, we will discuss the neurotoxic role of extracellular tau as well its involvement in the spreading of tau pathologies.This work was supported by funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education BFU2012-31195 European Union project H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017 number 766124 to M.D.-H. and from Universidad Complutense of Madrid (UCM)-Santander Central Hispano Bank PR41/17-21014 to M.D.-H. Á.S.-S. was hired by BFU2012-31195 grant and L.d.D.-G. has an UCM pre-doctoral fellowship supervised by M.D.-H.Peer reviewe