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)

Accumulation of insoluble protein deposits and their cross-linking by AGEs (advanced glycation end products) in the brain is a feature of aging and neurodegeneration, especially in AD (Alzheimer's disease). In AD, two types of fibrillar protein aggregates are present: extracellular deposits (plaques) consisting mainly of Abeta (beta-amyloid peptide), and intracellular deposits (tangles) composed predominantly of microtubule-associated protein tau. Both plaques and tangles are modified by AGEs, which occurs particularly at lysine and arginine residues. Interaction of a synthetic amyloid plaque (fibrillar Abeta) with microglia leads to a strong pro-inflammatory response, indicating that priming of immune cells with beta-amyloid potentiates their response to secondary stimuli such as AGE and cytokines such as interferon-gamma. Formation of hyperphosphorylated and cross-linked microtubule-associated protein tau aggregates, especially tau dimers as the first step in tangle formation, can be induced in vitro by the combination of okadaic acid, a PP2A phosphatase inhibitor, and methylglyoxal. These results suggest that excess production of reactive carbonyl compound ("carbonyl stress") and subsequent AGE formation can contribute to cross-linking of protein fibrils and to pathological pro-inflammatory signalling, which all contribute to pathological changes and dementia progression in AD. However, the human brain has developed the glyoxalase system, a most effective defence system to scavenge small dicarbonyl compounds such as glyoxal and methylglyoxal. Very importantly, this system needs GSH as a rate-limiting cofactor. Since GSH is limited under conditions of oxidative stress and inflammation, supplementation with antioxidants such as lipoic acid, vitamin E or flavonoids could indirectly strengthen the anti-glycation defence system in AD. In addition, synthetic carbonyl scavengers and anti-inflammatory drugs could also be valuable drugs for the "anti-glycation" treatment of AD.
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PMID:Anti-AGEing defences against Alzheimer's disease. 1464 Oct 72

Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains contain neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Regional reductions in cerebral glucose metabolism correlating to NFT densities have been reported in AD brains. Assuming that reduced glucose metabolism might cause abnormal tau hyperphosphorylation, we induced in vivo alterations of glucose metabolism in mice by starvation or intraperitoneal injections of either insulin or deoxyglucose. We found that the treatments led to abnormal tau hyperphosphorylation with patterns resembling those in early AD brains and also resulted in hypothermia. Surprisingly, tau hyperphosphorylation could be traced down to a differential effect of low temperatures on kinase and phosphatase activities. These data indicate that abnormal tau hyperphosphorylation is associated with altered glucose metabolism through hypothermia. Our results imply that serine-threonine protein phosphatase 2A plays a major role in regulating tau phosphorylation in the adult brain and provide in vivo evidence for its crucial role in abnormal tau hyperphosphorylation in AD.
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PMID:Alterations in glucose metabolism induce hypothermia leading to tau hyperphosphorylation through differential inhibition of kinase and phosphatase activities: implications for Alzheimer's disease. 1501 15

Oxidative stress has been demonstrated to produce modifications in several intracellular proteins that lead to alterations in their activities. Alzheimer's disease is related to an increase of oxidative stress markers, which may be an early event in the progression of the disease and neurofibrillary tangles formation. Abnormal phosphorylation of tau has been implicated in the etiopathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. By using phospho-specific antibodies, we analyzed the changes in tau phosphorylation patterns after treatment of rat hippocampal and SHSY5Y human neuroblastoma cells with H2O2. We found that tau isoforms were hypophosphorylated at the Tau1 epitope after 2 h in the presence of H2O2. The decrease in the phosphorylation levels of tau protein were prevented by pretreatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine. These changes were shown to depend on the activity of the cdk5/p35 complex, since a 3-fold increase in substrate phosphorylation and a 2-fold increase for the complex association were observed. Also, a decrease in the amount of inhibitor-2 bound to phosphatase PP1 was found in SHSY5Y cells under oxidative stress conditions. This decrease of inhibitor-2 bound to PP1 is due to an increased phosphorylation of the inhibitor-2 protein, thus leading to increased PP1 activity. Therefore, we propose that oxidative stress-induced activation of cdk5 leads to inhibitor-2 phosphorylation, relieving its inhibitory effect on PP1.
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PMID:Oxidative stress promotes tau dephosphorylation in neuronal cells: the roles of cdk5 and PP1. 1513 75

We have found recently that melatonin protects SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells from calyculin A-induced neurofilament impairment and neurotoxicity. In the present study, we further investigated the in vivo effect of inhibiting melatonin biosynthesis on spatial memory retention and tau phosphorylation in rats and the potential underlying mechanisms by using haloperidol, a specific inhibitor of 5-hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase, and a key enzyme in melatonin biosynthesis. We have found that injection of haloperidol into the lateral ventricle and into peritoneal cavity compromises spatial memory retention of rats and induces hyperphosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein tau at tau-1 (Ser199/Ser202) and PHF-1 (Ser396/Ser404) epitopes. At mean time, the activity of protein phosphatase-2A (PP-2A), a deficit phosphatase in the Alzheimer's disease brain and superoxide dismutase decreases with an elevated level of malondialdehyde. Supplementation with melatonin by prior injection for 1 wk and reinforcement during the haloperidol administration significantly improves memory retention deficits, arrests tau hyperphosphorylation and oxidative stress, and restores PP-2A activity. These results strongly support the involvement of decreased melatonin in Alzheimer-like spatial memory impairment and tau hyperphosphorylation, and PP-2A may play a role in mediating aberrant melatonin-induced lesions.
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PMID:Effect of inhibiting melatonin biosynthesis on spatial memory retention and tau phosphorylation in rat. 1529 64

Alzheimer disease (AD) and related tauopathies are all characterized histopathologically by neurofibrillary degeneration. The neurofibrillary changes, whether of paired helical filaments (PHF), twisted ribbons or straight filaments (SF) are made up of abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau. Unlike normal tau which promotes assembly and maintains structure of microtubules, the abnormal tau not only lacks these functions but also sequesters normal tau, MAP1 and MAP2, and causes disassembly of microtubules. This toxic behavior of the abnormal tau is solely due to its hyperphosphorylation because dephosphorylation restores it into a normal-like protein. The abnormal hyperphosphorylation also promotes the self-assembly of tau into PHF/SF. The state of phosphorylation of a phosphoprotein is the function of the activities of protein kinases and as well as of protein phosphatases that regulate the level of phosphorylation. A cause of the abnormal hyperphosphorylation in AD brain is a decrease in the activity of protein phosphatase (PP)-2A, a major regulator of the phosphorylation of tau. A decrease in PP-2A activity results in the abnormal hyperphosphorylation of tau not only by decreased dephosphorylation of tau but also by stimulating the activities of tau kinases like CaMKII, PKA and MAP kinases which are regulated by PP-2A. Thus, the abnormal hyperphosphorylation can be inhibited both by inhibition of the activity/s of a tau protein kinase and as well as by restoration of the activity/s of a tau protein phosphatase. The development of drugs that inhibit neurofibrillary degeneration is a very promising and feasible therapeutic approach to inhibit the progression of AD and related tauopathies.
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PMID:Pharmacological approaches of neurofibrillary degeneration. 1597 99

The two classical pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease are deposits of aggregated beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide and neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. In addition to Abeta pathology, an invariant trait of Alzheimer's disease, disruption of tau processing is a necessary event in the neurotoxic cascade which eventually leads to neuronal death and subsequent dementia. Tau is a neuronal, microtubule-bound protein which becomes hyperphosphorylated as a result of an imbalance of the kinase and phosphatase activities which normally tightly regulate its phosphorylation. In addition to this pathogenic hyperphosphorylation, tau dissociates from microtubules and self-aggregates to form insoluble oligomers which progress to the macroscopic tangles evident in post mortem Alzheimer's disease tissue. Subsequent toxicity may ensue either as a direct toxic effect of free tau oligomers or as a result of altered microtubule-dependent processes. In order to intervene pharmacologically in this disease process, much effort has been expended in order to identify and inhibit the kinases responsible for pathogenic hyperphosphorylation and many candidate kinases have been investigated including glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3), cyclin-dependant kinase-5 (Cdk-5), MAPK family members (extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 [Erk-1 and 2], MEK [MAP kinase kinase], c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinases (JNKs) and p38), casein kinase, calcium calmodulin-dependant kinase II (CaMK-II), microtubule affinity regulating kinase (MARK), protein kinase A (PKA/cAMP-dependant protein kinase) and others. Focus has also fallen upon the role of the phosphatases responsible for dephosphorylation of tau. This review will describe the tau-related etiology of Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies as well as the therapeutic strategies to inhibit the hyperphosphorylation of tau.
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PMID:Tau therapeutic strategies for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. 1671 93

The authors have characterized frontal cortical tau protein in cognitively intact (4) and cognitively impaired (ALSci, 4) ALS patients and compared it with control (2) or Alzheimer disease (AD, 1)- derived tau. The authors observed expression of both 3R and 4R tau isoforms; increased insoluble tau protein; phosphatase resistance; and hyperphosphorylation at T175, S208, and S210. Soluble tau from both AD and ALSci was also phosphorylated at S237. Tau hyperphosphorylation is associated with ALS.
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PMID:Tau protein hyperphosphorylation in sporadic ALS with cognitive impairment. 1676 62

Accumulating evidence indicates that the aberrant re-entry of post-mitotic neurons into the G2/M phase of cell cycle and the resulting mitotic catastrophe may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. However, the cellular event that drives the differentiated neurons to abnormally enter G2/M phase remains elusive. Similarly, whether mitotic catastrophe is indeed one of the death pathways for differentiated neurons is not clear. Previous studies revealed that okadaic acid (OA), a phosphatase inhibitor that induces AD like pathological changes, evokes mitotic changes in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we examined the in vivo effects of OA on cyclin B1 expression, the induction of mitosis, and subsequent mitotic catastrophe. We found that cyclin B1 expression in adult neurons was significantly increased after injecting OA into rat frontal cortex, which also increased tau protein phosphorylation. Interestingly, cyclin B1 and phosphorylated tau were well co-localized around the OA injection site, but were only partially co-localized in other brain regions. Staining with toluidine blue, Giemsa dye or propidium iodide revealed typical mitotic and mitotic catastrophe-like morphological changes with irregular arrangement of condensed chromatin and chromosome fibers in a few cells. Furthermore, the strong cyclin B1 staining in these cells suggests that cyclin B1 promoted G2 to M phase transition is required for the mitotic catastrophe. The detection of neuron-specific enolase in a portion of these cells demonstrated that at least part them are neuron. All together, our results suggest that the disturbance of the protein kinase-phosphatase system caused by OA is sufficient to induce neuronal cyclin B1 expression, force neurons into the mitotic phase of cell cycle, and cause mitotic catastrophe.
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PMID:Okadaic acid induced cyclin B1 expression and mitotic catastrophe in rat cortex. 1691 76

The microtubule-associated protein tau is hyperphosphorylated abnormally in AD and related neurodegenerative disorders. Many phospho epitopes created by proline directed kinases (SP/TP sites) show relative specificity for disease states. To test whether phosphorylation at the disease-associated SP/TP sites affects tau toxicity in vivo, we expressed a form of tau in Drosophila in which all SP/TP sites are mutated to alanine. We find that blocking phosphorylation at SP/TP motifs markedly reduces tau toxicity in vivo. Using phosphorylation-specific antibodies, we identify a positive correlation between increased phosphorylation at disease-associated sites and neurotoxicity. We use the phosphorylation-incompetent version of tau to show that kinase and phosphatase modifiers of tau neurotoxicity, including cdk5/p35, the JNK kinase hemipterous and PP2A act via SP/TP phosphorylation sites. We provide direct evidence in an animal model system to support the role of phosphorylation at SP/TP sites in playing a critical role in tau neurotoxicity.
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PMID:S/P and T/P phosphorylation is critical for tau neurotoxicity in Drosophila. 1733 84

Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology is associated with two proteins, the microtubule-binding protein tau and the beta-amyloid-precursor protein (APP). When tau becomes hyperphosphorylated, it forms neuritic aggregates, called neurofibrillary tangles. APP is cleaved by several enzymes to generate Abeta peptides, which are - depending on their length - more or less amyloidogenic and form senile plaques. Pin1, a peptidyl-propyl cis/trans-isomerase, seems to be involved in both pathologies. Pin1 may facilitate dephosphorylation of tau by PP2A phosphatase, while cellular overexpression of Pin1 causes a reduction in the amyloidogenic processing of APP, making this enzyme an interesting target for pharmaceutical intervention. The gene encoding Pin1 maps to 19p13.2, a region previously linked to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Therefore, Pin1 is an excellent positional and functional candidate for LOAD. In this study, we investigated whether common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Pin1 can influence the risk for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease. No association was observed with any of six polymorphisms or their resulting haplotypes. A meta-analysis of two promoter SNPs, which combined the data from this study with two previous ones, did not show any association either suggesting that common SNPs in Pin1 do not increase the risk for LOAD.
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PMID:Association studies between common variants in prolyl isomerase Pin1 and the risk for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. 1748 59


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