Md. Ledesma et al., THE IN-VITRO FORMATION OF RECOMBINANT TAU POLYMERS - EFFECT OF PHOSPHORYLATION AND GLYCATION, Molecular and chemical neuropathology, 27(3), 1996, pp. 249-258
tau Isolated from paired helical filaments, aberrant structures that a
ppear in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients' brains, show at least two po
sttranslational modifications: phosphorylation (Grundke-Iqbal et al.,
1986; Ihara et al., 1986) and glycation (Ledesma et al., 1994; Yan et
al., 1994). To test whether these modifications could affect the capac
ity of tau to self-aggregate, recombinant tau was phosphorylated and g
lycated, and its capacity to form polymers analyzed. Our results indic
ate that on phosphorylation and glycation, the capacity of tau to form
aggregates increases, and that glycation of tau could stabilize the a
ssembled polymers and could facilitate formation of bundles from these
polymers.