Synaptic oligomeric tau in Alzheimer’s disease — A potential culprit in the spread of tau pathology through the brain

In Alzheimer's disease, fibrillar tau pathology accumulates and spreads through the brain and synapses are lost. Evidence from mouse models indicates that tau spreads trans-synaptically from pre- to postsynapses and that oligomeric tau is synaptotoxic, but data on synaptic tau in human brain are scarce. Here we used sub-diffraction-limit microscopy to study synaptic tau accumulation in postmortem temporal and occipital cortices of human Alzheimer's and control donors. Oligomeric tau is present in pre- and postsynaptic terminals, even in areas without abundant fibrillar tau deposition. Furthermore, there is a higher proportion of oligomeric tau compared with phosphorylated or misfolded tau found at synaptic…

• WT
  Wellcome Trust
• AS
  Alzheimer's Society
• EC
  European Commission

  Award: 681181
• CD
  Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas
• UD
  UK Dementia Research Institute
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Award: MR/V00610X/1