Abstract:

Tau proteins are abundant in neurons of the central nervous system and are expressed at very low levels in astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, providing the stabilisation of microtubules. Tau pathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease, are associated with conformational changes during oligomerisation and assembly resulting in cellular toxicity. The conformationally altered tau could be a promising molecular target for disease-modifying therapy. The EU-funded InterTAU project’s

 main goal is to study the detailed structure of tau proteins and their variants in monomeric, oligomeric and fibrillar states relevant to diseases. The InterTAU international consortium includes a clinical-stage biotech company pursuing the development of anti-tau immunotherapy as well as academic partners with suitable methodologies for the functional and structural characterisation of the tau modification pathway by nuclear magnetic resonance, cryo-electron microscopy and

cellular assays.