Strategies for diminishing katanin-based loss of microtubules in tauopathic neurodegenerative diseases.

ABSTRACT: It is commonly stated that microtubules gradually disintegrate as tau becomes dissociated from them in tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease. However, there has been no compelling evidence to date that such disintegration is due to depolymerization of microtubules from their ends. In recent studies, we have shown that neurons contain sufficient levels of the microtubule-severing protein termed katanin to completely break down the axonal microtubule array if not somehow attenuated. The presence of tau on axonal microtubules renders them notably less sensitive to katanin, prompting us to posit that microtubule disintegration in tauopathies may result from elevated severing of the microtubules as they lose tau. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrate here that pathogenic tau mutants t

SUBMITTER: Sudo H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3024046 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature