Fibrils of the microtubule-associated protein tau are intimately linked to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders. A current paradigm for pathology spreading in the human brain is that short tau fibrils transfer between neurons and then recruit naive tau monomers onto their tips, perpetuating the fibrillar conformation with high fidelity and speed. Although it is known that the propagation could be modulated in a cell-specific manner and thereby contribute to phenotypic diversity, there is still limited understanding of how select molecules are involved in this process. MAP2 is a neuronal protein that shares significant sequence homology with the repeat-bearing amyloid core region of tau. There is discrepancy about MAP2's involvement in pathology and its relationship with tau fibrillization. Here, we employed the entire repeat regions of 3R and 4R MAP2, to investigate their modulatory role in tau fibrillization. We find that both proteins block the spontaneous and seeded aggregation of 4R tau, with 4R MAP2 being slightly more potent. The inhibition of tau seeding is observed in vitro, in HEK293 cells, and in AD brain extracts, underscoring its broader scope. MAP2 monomers specifically bind to the end of tau fibrils, preventing recruitment of further tau and MAP2 monomers onto the fibril tip. The findings uncover a new function for MAP2 as a tau fibril cap that could play a significant role in modulating tau propagation in disease and may hold promise as a potential intrinsic protein inhibitor.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; MAP2; aggregation; amyloid; fibril; inhibition; prion; seeding; tau protein; tauopathy.
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