title: Tauons and prions: infamous cousins?
abstract: The paradigm of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one subject to frequent change: what was thought to be a rare form of pre-senile dementia was revealed as a wide-spread malady; where amyloid-β was deemed the sole causative agent for the better part of 20 years, tau protein was shown to play a crucial role in AD genesis. With the discovery of possible prion-like phenomena in this disease supposedly driven by cell-autonomous processes, an evaluation of the similarities and differences between tau-driven neurodegeneration and prion disease becomes necessary. In this article, we provide a comparison of the template agent genesis, filament assembly, as well as intra- and inter-individual spread of prions and tauons.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, AD Centre, Dubravska, cesta, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Petr.Novak@savba.sk
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prcina
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kontsekova
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology; D017096:Prion Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D011328:Prions / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D011328:Prions; D016875:tau Proteins