Current Issue
Cell to cell transmission of misfolded tau protein in neurodegenerative diseases and possible
therapeutic strategies
Date：
2022-01-21
ZHANG Bin1 , ZHANG Ying2 , WANG Jun2 (1. Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of
Pennsylvania, School of Medicine Philadelphia, Pa 19104 USA; 2. The Institute of Biology and Bioengineer, School of
Science, Beijing Jiao Tong University, Beijing 100044, China.)
[Abstract] The aggregation of misfolded pathogenic proteins in the brain is a common characteristic in most neurodegenerative diseases, such
as misfolded pathogenic Aβ peptides and hyper-phosphorylated tau proteins in Alzheimer’s diseases (AD), α-synuclein in Parkinson’s diseases
(PD), TDP43 proteins in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), and polyQs in Huntington’s disease (HD). These
different misfolded pathogenic proteins have been reported to be transmitted from one brain area to broad brain regions and cause neuronal
dysfunction directly or indirectly. In this review, the tau protein is used as an example to review mechanisms of aggregation, transmission and
possible therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases. The potential therapeutic strategies in the treatment of these tau neurodegenerative diseases are proposed. Hope this review can help clinic doctors and research scientists easily to understand the tauopathy on basic science and recent research progress in a short time.
[Key Words] Alzheimer’s disease; tau protein; transmission; cortical basal degeneration; progressive supranuclear palsy; Pick's disease