Researchers from South Korea and the United States have found a new method to eliminate the tau protein, which is known to cause Alzheimer’s disease.
The research team led by Lee Jeong-soo, head researcher at the Korea Bioinformation Center, along with Dr. Ryu Hoon's team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and professor Lee Jeong-hee's team from Boston University School of Medicine, noted on the 18th that they discovered how valosin-containing protein (VCP) removes tau proteins that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
Tauopathies are a group of diseases characterized by the abnormal aggregation and accumulation of tau proteins. Degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and progressive supranuclear palsy fall into this category. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the representative dementias and is a refractory disease with no clear treatment available.
The research team focused on the fact that when the expression of human tau proteins changes in animal models, the expression of VCP also changes accordingly. VCP is essential for maintaining protein homeostasis and is known to be involved in rare diseases that cause abnormal protein aggregation and cell death in the nervous and musculoskeletal systems.
The research team confirmed that a decrease in VCP expression in animal models leads to an abnormal increase in tau protein accumulation, while an increase in VCP expression results in a decrease in tau protein aggregation. In mouse models, the dementia-related symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease were also improved.
The research team found that VCP removes tau protein during the autophagy process. They also confirmed that when administered together with the VCP activator 'SMER-28' and the autophagy activator rapamycin, the effect of tau protein removal is further enhanced.
Lee Jeong-soo, the lead researcher, said, “This study presents a new approach to treating tau-related degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, which currently has no clear treatments,” adding, “It is expected to make a significant contribution to the development of treatments for various degenerative brain diseases.”
Reference materials
Neuropathologica (2024), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-024-02804-z