AUTHOR=Goedert Michel , Yamaguchi Yoshiki , Mishra Sushil K. , Higuchi Makoto , Sahara Naruhiko 

TITLE=Tau Filaments and the Development of Positron Emission Tomography Tracers

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00070

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2018.00070

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p>A pathological pathway leading from soluble, monomeric to insoluble, filamentous Tau, is believed to underlie human Tauopathies. Cases of frontotemporal dementia are caused by dominantly inherited mutations in <italic>MAPT</italic>, the Tau gene. They show that dysfunction of Tau protein is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration and dementia. Extrapolation to the more common sporadic Tauopathies leads one to conclude that the pathological pathway is central to the development of all cases of disease, even if there are multiple reasons for Tau assembly. These findings are conceptually similar to those reported for beta-amyloid, alpha-synuclein and prion protein. Here, we provide an overview of Tau filaments and their positron emission tomography ligands.</p>