Tauopathy promotes spinal cord-dependent production of toxic amyloid-beta in transgenic monkeys

This study investigates the relationship between tauopathy and the formation of toxic amyloid-beta (Aβ) oligomers, which are major hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers created transgenic monkeys expressing Tau (P301L) and found that tauopathy selectively promoted the generation of Aβ oligomers in the monkey spinal cord. These findings suggest that tauopathy can trigger Aβ pathology in the primate spinal cord, offering new insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of tauopathy.

• 1
  Tauopathy resulting from embryonic transgenic Tau expression or stereotaxic brain injection of AAV-Tau selectively promoted the generation of Aβ oligomers in the monkey spinal cord.
• 2
  The generation of Aβ oligomers was not observed in other brain regions of Tau transgenic monkeys or in the brains of mice injected with AAV9-Tau (P301L), suggesting that the generation of Aβ oligomers is species- and brain region-dependent.
• 3
  Transgenic Tau selectively promoted Aβ oligomer formation in the spinal cord.