The Fate of Tau Aggregates Between Clearance and Transmission

Assel Seitkazina; Kyu Hyeon Kim; Erin Fagan; Yoonsik Sung; Yun Kyung Kim; Sungsu Lim

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.932541

The Fate of Tau Aggregates Between Clearance and Transmission

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Jul 18:14:932541. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.932541. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Assel Seitkazina^{1

2}, Kyu Hyeon Kim^{1

2}, Erin Fagan³, Yoonsik Sung^{1

2}, Yun Kyung Kim^{1

2}, Sungsu Lim¹

Affiliations

¹ Convergence Research Center for Brain Science, Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea.
² Division of Bio-Medical Science and Technology, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul, South Korea.
³ Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States.

Abstract

Neuronal accumulation of mis-folded tau is the pathological hallmark of multiple neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Distinct from amyloid plaques, which appear simultaneously throughout the brain, tau pathology develops first in a specific brain region and then propagates to neuroanatomically connected brain regions, exacerbating the disease. Due to the implication in disease progression, prevention of tau transmission is recognized as an important therapeutic strategy that can halt disease progression in the brain. Recently, accumulating studies have demonstrated diverse cellular mechanisms associated with cell-to-cell transmission of tau. Once transmitted, mis-folded tau species act as a prion-like seed for native tau aggregation in the recipient neuron. In this review, we summarize the diverse cellular mechanisms associated with the secretion and uptake of tau, and highlight tau-trafficking receptors, which mediate tau clearance or cell-to-cell tau transmission.

Keywords: pathological tau; tau; tau clearance; tau transmission; tauopathy.

Publication types

Review