Constitutive secretion of tau protein by an unconventional mechanism

The microtubule-associated protein tau plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and several related disorders. In the disease tau aggregates into paired helical and straight filaments, which can form higher order neurofibrillary tangles in neurons and this pathology is associated with progressive neuronal loss and cognitive decline. Tau is a cytoplasmic protein and is thought to be released only from degenerating cells....