Summary: A new study may help shed light on the diversity of dementias linked to tau protein aggregation.
Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center.
The distinct structures of toxic protein aggregates that form in degenerating brains determine which type of dementia will occur, which regions of brain will be affected, and how quickly the disease will spread, according to a study from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
The research helps explain the diversity of dementias linked to tau protein aggregation, which destroys brain cells of patients with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative syndromes. The study also has implications for earlier and more accurate diagnoses of various dementias through definition of the unique forms of tau associated with each.
“In addition to providing a framework to understand why patients develop different types of neurodegeneration, this work has promise for the development of drugs to treat specific neurodegenerative diseases, and for how to accurately diagnose them. The findings indicate that a one-size-fits-all strategy for therapy may not work, and that we have to approach clinical trials and drug development with an awareness of which forms of tau we are targeting,” said study author Dr. Marc Diamond, founding Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics with the O’Donnell Brain Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
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