Filamentous deposits made of the microtubule-associated protein tau
are a defining characteristic of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including
Alzheimer disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration
(CBD), and some frontotemporal dementias, such as Pick disease.1
The identification of coding region and intronic (noncoding) mutations in
the tau gene in familial frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to
chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) has established that dysfunction of tau protein is
sufficient to cause neurodegeneration and dementia.2-4