The Role of Tau Protein in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

A wide range of neurodegenerative diseases known as tauopathies, including Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, have underlying pathologies which involve the microtubule-associated protein Tau. Under normal physiological conditions, Tau has little propensity for aggregation, but in diseased brains, it assembles into oligomers and fibrils, leading to intracellular deposits of highly toxic aggregates. In the diseased brain, it is mainly this microtubule stabilisation which is compromised. Since its identification in 1975 by Weingarten and colleagues, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of its function in different neuronal compartments (axon, dendrite, synapse, and soma) and its malfunction in tauopathies. The recent failures of amyloid-based Alzheimer therapies have led to considerable inroads in both the understanding of the physiology of tau in multiple processes, but also in its utility as a biomarker and therapeutic target to lead to disease-modifying treatments.

Here, we seek to accumulate recent developments in modern approaches to foster a richer understanding of the function of Tau in normal physiological as well as pathological processes underlying neurodegeneration.

We look forward to your contributions related to tau and related topics:

• Tau biology;
• Toxicity;
• Utility as a biomarker and for diagnoses;
• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuropathology;
• Mechanisms of the aggregation and formation of filaments and tangles;
• All aspects of tau genetics;
• Tau and the immune system;
• Tau as a therapeutic target: current status and progress.

Dr. Gernot Riedel
Dr. Valeria Melis
Guest Editors

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