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Tau seeds from Alzheimer's disease brains trigger tau spread in macaques while oligomeric-Aβ mediates pathology maturation

Darricau, Morgane; Dou, Changsong; Kinet, Remi; Zhu, Tao; Zhou, Li; Li, Xianglei; Bedel, Aurelie; ... Planche, Vincent; + view all (2023) Tau seeds from Alzheimer's disease brains trigger tau spread in macaques while oligomeric-Aβ mediates pathology maturation. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association 10.1002/alz.13604. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The “prion-like” features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) tauopathy and its relationship with amyloid-β (Aβ) have never been experimentally studied in primates phylogenetically close to humans. METHODS: We injected 17 macaques in the entorhinal cortex with nanograms of seeding-competent tau aggregates purified from AD brains or control extracts from aged-matched healthy brains, with or without intracerebroventricular co-injections of oligomeric-Aβ. RESULTS: Pathological tau injection increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) p-tau181 concentration after 18 months. Tau pathology spreads from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampal trisynaptic loop and the cingulate cortex, resuming the experimental progression of Braak stage I to IV. Many AD-related molecular networks were impacted by tau seeds injections regardless of Aβ injections in proteomic analyses. However, we found mature neurofibrillary tangles, increased CSF total-tau concentration, and pre- and postsynaptic degeneration only in Aβ co-injected macaques. DISCUSSION: Oligomeric-Aβ mediates the maturation of tau pathology and its neuronal toxicity in macaques but not its initial spreading. Highlights: This study supports the “prion-like” properties of misfolded tau extracted from AD brains. This study empirically validates the Braak staging in an anthropomorphic brain. This study highlights the role of oligomeric Aβ in driving the maturation and toxicity of tau pathology. This work establishes a novel animal model of early sporadic AD that is closer to the human pathology.

Type: Article
Title: Tau seeds from Alzheimer's disease brains trigger tau spread in macaques while oligomeric-Aβ mediates pathology maturation
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/alz.13604
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/alz.13604
Language: English
Additional information: © 2023 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, beta-amyloid, non-human primate, prion-like, tau, tauopathy
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > UK Dementia Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10187085
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