title: Co-localization of truncated tau and DNA fragmentation in Alzheimer's disease neurones.
abstract: Monoclonal antibody MN423 stains all hallmarks of tau neurofibrillary pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), without reacting with full-length tau. It recognizes tau molecules which are cleaved at Glu-391, suggesting that tau is endogenously truncated in AD brains. We investigated whether truncation of tau takes place in pre-tangle neurones. Our results showed that tau truncation occurs inside AD neurones in the absence of other signs of AD neurofibrillary pathology. Using in situ end labelling (ISEL) of DNA we found evidence for DNA fragmentation in a significant subpopulation of MN423-positive neurones. Our results therefore suggest that tau truncation is an early intracellular event preceding cell death in AD.
authors.affiliation: International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Neuroscience Programme, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ugolini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novak
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology*; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology; D012016:Reference Values; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D016875:tau Proteins