Truncated tau protein is the characteristic feature of human sporadic Alzheimer's disease. We have identified truncated tau proteins conformationally different from normal healthy tau. Subpopulations of these structurally different tau species promoted abnormal microtubule assembly in vitro suggesting toxic gain of function. To validate pathological activity in vivo we expressed active form of human truncated tau protein as transgene, in the rat brain. Its neuronal expression led to the development of the neurofibrillary degeneration of Alzheimer's type. Furthermore, biochemical analysis of neurofibrillary changes revealed that massive sarcosyl insoluble tau complexes consisted of human Alzheimer's tau and endogenous rat tau in ratio 1:1 including characteristic Alzheimer's disease (AD)-specific proteins (A68). This work represents first insight into the possible causative role of truncated tau in AD neurofibrillary degeneration in vivo.
Tau neuronal and glial pathologies drive the clinical presentation of Alzheimer’s disease and related human tauopathies. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that pathological tau species can travel from cell to cell and spread the pathology through the brain. Throughout the last decade, physiological and pathological tau have become attractive targets for AD therapies. Several therapeutic approaches have been proposed, including the inhibition of protein kinases or protein-3-O-(N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminyl)-L-serine/threonine Nacetylglucosaminyl hydrolase, the inhibition of tau aggregation, active and passive immunotherapies, and tau silencing by antisense oligonucleotides. New tau therapeutics, across the board, have demonstrated the ability to prevent or reduce tau lesions and improve either cognitive or motor impairment in a variety of animal models developing neurofibrillary pathology. The most advanced strategy for the treatment of human tauopathies remains immunotherapy, which has already reached the clinical stage of drug development. Tau vaccines or humanised antibodies target a variety of tau species either in the intracellular or extracellular spaces. Some of them recognise the amino-terminus or carboxy-terminus, while others display binding abilities to the proline-rich area or microtubule binding domains. The main therapeutic foci in existing clinical trials are on Alzheimer’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy and non-fluent primary progressive aphasia. Tau therapy offers a new hope for the treatment of many fatal brain disorders. First efficacy data from clinical trials will be available by the end of this decade.
IntroductionPathologically modified tau protein is the main feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related tauopathies. Therefore, immunotherapies that target mis-disordered tau represent a promising avenue for the disease-modifying treatment of AD. In this report, we present our discovery of (1) a novel target for tau immunotherapy; (2) monoclonal antibody DC8E8, which neutralizes this target; and (3) the results of efficacy studies of DC8E8 in a murine model of tauopathy.MethodsIn vitro tau oligomerisation assays were used for the selection of antibodies. The therapeutic efficacy of DC8E8 was evaluated in transgenic mice. The structure of the DC8E8 epitope was determined by X-ray crystallography.ResultsScreening of a panel of monoclonal antibodies for their inhibitory activity in an in vitro pathological tau–tau interaction assay yielded DC8E8, which reduced the amount of oligomeric tau by 84%. DC8E8 recognised all developmental stages of tau pathology in AD human brains, including pretangles and intra- and extracellular tangles. Treatment with DC8E8 in a mouse AD model expressing mis-disordered human tau significantly reduced the amount of insoluble oligomerised tau and the number of early and mature neurofibrillary tangles in the transgenic mouse brains. By using a panel of tau-derived peptides in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we identified the tau domain essential for pathological tau–tau interaction, which is targeted by DC8E8. The antibody was capable of binding to four highly homologous and yet independent binding regions on tau, each of which is a separate epitope. The X-ray structure of the DC8E8 Fab apo form, solved at 3.0 Å, suggested that the four DC8E8 epitopes form protruding structures on the tau molecule. Finally, by kinetic measurements with surface plasmon resonance, we determined that antibody DC8E8 is highly discriminatory between pathological and physiological tau.ConclusionsWe have discovered defined determinants on mis-disordered truncated tau protein which are responsible for tau oligomerisation leading to neurofibrillary degeneration. Antibody DC8E8 reactive with these determinants is able to inhibit tau–tau interaction in vitro and in vivo. DC8E8 is able to discriminate between the healthy and diseased tau proteome, making its epitopes suitable targets, and DC8E8 a suitable candidate molecule, for AD immunotherapy.
The stability and dynamics of cytoskeleton in brain nerve cells are regulated by microtubule associated proteins (MAPs), tau and MAP2. Both proteins are intrinsically disordered and involved in multiple molecular interactions important for normal physiology and pathology of chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Nuclear magnetic resonance and cryo-electron microscopy recently revealed propensities of MAPs to form transient local structures and long-range contacts in the free state, and conformations adopted in complexes with microtubules and filamentous actin, as well as in pathological aggregates. In this paper, we compare the longest, 441-residue brain isoform of tau (tau40), and a 467-residue isoform of MAP2, known as MAP2c. For both molecules, we present transient structural motifs revealed by conformational analysis of experimental data obtained for free soluble forms of the proteins. We show that many of the short sequence motifs that exhibit transient structural features are linked to functional properties, manifested by specific interactions. The transient structural motifs can be therefore classified as molecular recognition elements of tau40 and MAP2c. Their interactions are further regulated by post-translational modifications, in particular phosphorylation. The structure-function analysis also explains differences between biological activities of tau40 and MAP2c.
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