The repeat region of microtubule-associated protein tau forms part of the core of the paired helical filament of Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The paired helical filament, the principal component of the neurofibrillary tangles characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, is shown to consist of two structurally distinct parts. An external fuzzy region can be removed by pronase treatment to leave a pronase-resistant morphologically recognizable core. A monoclonal antibody has been raised which both decorates the core and labels peptide fragments extracted from the core. Amino acid sequence derived from such peptides was used to design oligonucleotide probes with which cDNA libraries were screened and clones coding for the corresponding proteins were isolated. The sequences proved to code for two isoforms of human microtubule-associated protein tau, which contained respectively three or four tandem repeats of 31 or 32 amino acids each with a characteristic Pro-Gly-Gly-Gly motif. The patterns of mRNA expression for the two isoforms were found to be stage and cell-type specific but were apparently unaltered in Alzheimer's disease. The repeat region of tau is believed to be the microtubule binding domain and it is this region of the molecule which is tightly and specifically bound in the core of the paired helical filament.