Pathogenesis of Tauopathies

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Aggregated microtubule-associated protein tau (tau) is the common lesion of a group of neurodegenerative diseases with heterogeneous clinical and neuropathological manifestations, collectively referred to as tauopathies. In line with the clinical and pathological diversity, pathological tau aggregates are biologically potent to induce normal tau into aggregations in a strain-dependent manner, suggesting an underlying mechanism of disease-specific tau pathogenesis. The long-term goal of the study is to elucidate the mechanism(s) of the strain-dependent tau transmission and search for therapeutic targets to inhibit the transmission procedure. The central hypothesis is that the imprinted properties of tau strain impair neuron biology via transmission activities. Our rationale is that understanding the mechanism by which tau strains differentially transmit will facilitate the development of therapeutic targets to selectively and efficiently treat different forms of tauopathy by inhibiting the critical transmission steps in tau pathogenesis. Our specific aims are to test the following hypotheses: (Aim 1) amyloid β plaques pathology interact with different forms of tau pathology and modulate of tau transmission; (Aim 2) the conversion of pathological conformations is the molecular basis of tau strain-dependent pathogenicity; (Aim 3) novel genes modulating tau transmission can be targeted as therapeutic strategies for tauopathy. This contribution is significant since the study will elucidate the molecular basis of the diversity of tauopathy and provide specific strategies to treat the diseases. The proposed research is innovative because we will use novel models of tauopathy to spatiotemporally investigate the mechanism of tau transmission and search for potential therapeutic targets with a high degree of disease relevance.