Tau Protein News and Research

RSS

Tau proteins are microtubule-associated proteins found in neurons in the brain.

Tau pathology underlies deterioration of spatial cognition in Alzheimer's disease

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have discovered that the spatial disorientation that leads to wandering in many Alzheimer's disease patients is caused by the accumulation of tau protein in navigational nerve cells in the brain.

20 Jan 2017

Scientists discover gene that may open new door to developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have identified a gene that may provide a new starting point for developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

11 Jan 2017

Penn study finds evidence of AD neuropathology in post-mortem brains of LBD patients

Patients who had a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) with dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and had higher levels of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in their donated post-mortem brains also had more severe symptoms of these Lewy body diseases (LBD) during their lives, compared to those whose brains had less AD pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

6 Jan 2017

Tau biomarker could lead to early identification of Alzheimer's disease pathology

A discovery of high relevance in medical research will be published in Volume 55, number 4 of December 2016 of the prestigious "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD)", entitled "Tau Platelets Correlate with Regional Brain Atrophy in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease".

22 Dec 2016

Study finds way to detect early signs of AD by looking at retina of patients' eyes

A new study from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston offers important insight into how Alzheimer's disease begins within the brain.

18 Nov 2016

Llama antibodies can detect cerebral lesions that characterize Alzheimer's disease

The major challenge facing physicians treating Alzheimer's is the ability to detect markers of the disease as early as possible. These markers, located in the brain, are difficult to access, hampering diagnosis.

4 Nov 2016

Distinct structures of tau protein aggregates may help determine type of dementia, study shows

The distinct structures of toxic protein aggregates that form in degenerating brains determine which type of dementia will occur, which regions of brain will be affected, and how quickly the disease will spread, according to a study from the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.

31 Oct 2016

New study unravels cause of cognitive loss in tauopathy disorders

Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease that are characterized by the deposition of aggregates of the tau protein inside brain cells.

13 Oct 2016

Study sheds new light on role of Tau proteins in certain brain diseases

In a study published in the journal PNAS scientists of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases present new findings on the role of the protein Tau in certain brain diseases.

7 Oct 2016

Tau PET imaging in Alzheimer's disease increases opportunities for developing effective drugs

Tau PET is a new and promising imaging method for Alzheimer's disease. A case study from Lund University in Sweden now confirms that tau PET images correspond to a higher degree to actual changes in the brain. According to the researchers behind the study, this increases opportunities for developing effective drugs.

28 Sep 2016

Experimental PET tracer can diagnose concussion-related brain degeneration in living person

An experimental positron emission tomography (PET) tracer can effectively diagnose concussion-related brain degeneration while a person is still alive, according to a proof-of-concept study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published September 27 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

27 Sep 2016

Multi-purpose protein may offer clues for successful treatment of Alzheimer's disease

The tidal wave approaches. In the coming decades, Alzheimer's disease is projected to exact a devastating economic and emotional toll on society, with patient numbers in the US alone expected to reach 13.5 million by mid-century at a projected cost of over a trillion dollars.

30 Aug 2016

Salk researchers identify new mechanism for Alzheimer's risk gene

For decades, scientists have known that people with two copies of a gene called apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) are much more likely to have Alzheimer's disease at age 65 than the rest of the population.

18 Aug 2016

Healthy BMI, exercise and diet can lower abnormal protein build-ups linked to Alzheimer’s

A study by researchers at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior has found that a healthy diet, regular physical activity and a normal body mass index can reduce the incidence of protein build-ups that are associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

16 Aug 2016

Novel therapeutic strategy could target multiple aspects of Alzheimer's disease

Therapeutic strategies targeting Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related molecule β-amyloid (Aβ), Tau protein and BACE enzyme have been recently explored. However the therapeutic efficacy for a single target is not ideal.

8 Aug 2016

Odor identification test may help detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and NewYork-Presbyterian reported that an odor identification test may prove useful in predicting cognitive decline and detecting early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

26 Jul 2016

New research shows how toxic Alzheimer's protein spreads through the brain

A toxic Alzheimer's protein can spread through the brain--jumping from one neuron to another--via the extracellular space that surrounds the brain's neurons, suggests new research from Columbia University Medical Center.

19 Jul 2016

New mouse model reveals how Alzheimer's causes dementia

Using a novel, newly developed mouse model that mimics the development of Alzheimer's disease in humans, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have been able to determine that a one-two punch of major biological "insults" must occur in the brain to cause the dementia that is the hallmark of the disease.

4 Jul 2016

New imaging study links tau proteins to neurodegenerative pathology of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's is a devastating and incurable disease marked by beta-amyloid and tau protein aggregations in the brain, yet the direct relationship between these proteins and neurodegeneration has remained a mystery.

14 Jun 2016

Many biomarkers for PD fail to inform on progression

Longitudinal monitoring of 30 tests for marker candidates in early Parkinson's disease has found that just 10 show significant changes commensurate with disease progression.

17 May 2016