In addition to FTDP-17, altered tau isoform levels are also pathogenically associated with other FTD disorders such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration and Pick's disease; however, the mechanisms remain undefined and mutations in tau have not been detected.
Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), one of the histopathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and Pick bodies in Pick's disease (PiD) are composed of microtubule-associated protein tau, which is the product of alternative splicing of a gene on chromosome 17.
Members of families with mutations in the tau gene are known to be heterogeneous in their clinical presentation, ranging from frontotemporal dementia to a clinical picture more resembling corticobasal degeneration or progressive supranuclear palsy.
The mechanism by which this common variability in the tau gene influences the development of PSP is unclear; however, it further suggests a central role for tau in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Tauopathies, characterized by the dysfunction and aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), represent some of the most devastating neurodegenerative disorders afflicting the elderly, including Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy.
They include the largely sporadic Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), Pick's disease (PiD), argyrophilic grain disease, as well as the inherited frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17).
Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy, which are associated with the pathological aggregation of tau protein into neurofibrillary tangles (NFT).
Pick's disease (PiD) is characterized by the deposition of tau protein as three-repeat tau Pick bodies, whereas progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) involves the deposition of four-repeat tau neurofibrillary tangles.
Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a neurodegenerative disorder pathologically characterized by intracellular tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau protein distributed throughout the neocortex, basal ganglia, and brainstem.
Common and rare variants in the MAPT gene increase the risk for sporadic FTLD-Tau, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD).
This study demonstrates that 22 unrelated progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) patients have four identical sequence variants within the tau gene that are not present in 24 age-matched controls.
The microtubule-associated protein tau is another protein that self-aggregates in specific neurodegenerative diseases that also involve loss of dopamine neurons such as frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17, progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration.
However, we found a strong association of two H1 sub-haplotypes with PSP and CBD (H1E'C and H1Q), which include MAPT and CRHR1 genes where the risk variant for PSP/CBD could lie.
Characteristic tau isoform composition of the insoluble fibrillar tau inclusions define tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17/frontotemporal lobar degeneration-tau (FTDP-17/FTLD-tau).
Tau aggregation is one of the major features in Alzheimer's disease and in several other tauopathies, including frontotemporal dementia with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
Strong genetic evidences for the involvement of the tau gene variability in the pathogenesis of PSP have been demonstrated in several Caucasian populations.
These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a change either in the 5' or in the 3' flanking regions of the tau gene, or even other genes contained in the H1E haplotype, could increase the genetic susceptibility to PSP.