Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P10636 (tau protein)
 5,110 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Main causes of dementia in the elderly are vascular dementia and Alzheimer's dementia. Vascular dementia is related to both amounts and localization of lesions. Recently incidence of diffuse vascular leukoencephalopathy (Binswanger type, leukoaraiosis) and amyloid angiopathy are increasing. In Alzheimer's protein chemistry of amyloid (beta protein, A4 protein) revealed its precursor APP and its gene (chromosome 21), which produces protease inhibitor in the brain of Alzheimer and Down's brains. APP is considered as an membrane protein (receptor) and appears abundantly in the cerebral cortex. Immunohistochemical study showed that beta protein is observed also in normal aged brain. On the other hand, tau protein (main component of Alzheimer's neurofibrillary tangle, PHF) appeared as abnormal sprouting of neurites in Alzheimer's brain. The latter may related to dementia and neural death. In Alzheimer's dementia, several neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, are reduced in the brain and related structural changes are observed. Recently olfactory bulb and mucosal changes are remarked as one of pathogenesis of this disease. Delayed neuronal death is a new phenomenon of nerve cell death of vascular origin and should be studied in human vascular dementia.
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PMID:[Approach to the dementia research]. 269 99

Neurofibrillary tangles and dystrophic neurites are characteristic pathological features found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. A major constituent of these lesions is the cytoskeletal protein tau. This study examined whether the measurement of tau in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) has value in the diagnosis of AD. Seventy-seven subjects were enrolled in this prospective study: These included AD (N = 24), Neurological Controls (dementing diseases/syndromes, N = 26), Normal Controls (N = 14), and Others (N = 13). CSF was obtained by lumbar puncture, and tau concentrations (pg/mL) were determined using a dual monoclonal antibody microplate immunoassay. The mean tau value for AD subjects (1,430 +/- 739) was significantly different from Neurological Control subjects (790 +/- 579) (p < 0.001) and Normal Control subjects (816 +/- 355) (p < 0.001). Tau values were elevated in two Neurological Control subjects, one with Binswanger's disease (age 75) and one with depression (age 90). Tau values were also elevated in three Normal Control subjects; two were subjects with a family history of AD. Tau concentrations did not correlate significantly with age in AD subjects (r = 0.05, p = 0.82) or in Normal Control subjects (r = -0.49, p = 0.08). Tau also did not correlate with severity of cognitive impairment in AD subjects (r = -0.03, p = 0.91) or duration of AD symptoms (r = 0.16, p = 0.52). Based on these results and others, CSF levels of tau protein may provide a useful biochemical marker to aid in the clinical diagnosis of AD.
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PMID:Tau protein in cerebrospinal fluid as an aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. 760 2