MICROTUBULE-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN MAP1B SHOWING A FETAL PHOSPHORYLATION PATTERN IS PRESENT IN SITES OF NEUROFIBRILLARY DEGENERATION IN BRAINS OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE PATIENTS

Alzheimer's disease results in the appearance of cytoskeletal disorder s yielding pathological structures such a neurofibrillary tangles or d ystrophic neurites. It has been previously described that the microtub ule-associated protein, tau, modified by phosphorylation in serines ad jacent to prolines, is a major component of these structures. Here, we show that another microtubule associated protein, MAP1B, aberrantly p hosphorylated by a proline-dependent protein kinase, is a component of these previously mentioned structures. Thus, a possible common phosph orylation of axonal MAPs such as tau or MAP1B may correlate with their association with those aberrant cytoskeletal structures present in AD .