The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Caspase activation precedes and leads to tangles
Open accessAbstract
Studies of post-mortem tissue have shown that the location of fibrillar tau deposits, called neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), matches closely with regions of massive neuronal death, severe cytological abnormalities, and markers of caspase activation and apoptosis, leading to the idea that tangles cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and tau-related frontotemporal dementia. However, using in vivo multiphoton imaging to observe tangles and activation of executioner caspases in living tau transgenic mice (Tg4510 strain), we find the opposite: caspase activation occurs first, and precedes tangle formation by hours to days. New tangles form within a day. After a new tangle forms, the neuron remains alive and caspase activity seems to be suppressed. Similarly, introduction of wild-type 4-repeat tau (tau-4R) into wild-type animals triggered caspase activation, tau truncation and tau aggregation. Adeno-associated virus-mediated expression of a construct mimicking caspase-cleaved tau into wild-type mice led to the appearance of intracellular aggregates, tangle-related conformational- and phospho-epitopes, and the recruitment of full-length endogenous tau to the aggregates. On the basis of these data, we propose a new model in which caspase activation cleaves tau to initiate tangle formation, then truncated tau recruits normal tau to misfold and form tangles. Because tangle-bearing neurons are long-lived, we suggest that tangles are 'off pathway' to acute neuronal death. Soluble tau species, rather than fibrillar tau, may be the critical toxic moiety underlying neurodegeneration.
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“Recent evidence suggests that executioner caspases 3 and 7 may contribute to tau, the protein responsible for forming NFTs, pathology by cleaving tau after Asp421 to yield a cytotoxic Δtau fragment (Rissman et al., 2004; Rohn et al., 2008; de Calignon et al., 2010).”
From The mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ prevents loss of spatial memory retention and early neuropathology in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2011) · cites this paper as de Calignon et al., 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“may contribute to cognitive decline”
From The mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ prevents loss of spatial memory retention and early neuropathology in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2011) · cites this paper as de Calignon et al., 2010
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“the early cleavage of tau by these caspases initiates tau aggregation and phosphorylation”
From The mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ prevents loss of spatial memory retention and early neuropathology in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2011) · cites this paper as de Calignon et al., 2010
In the citing paper
“Mitochondrial abnormalities, synaptic loss and dysfunction, altered axonal transport, and activation of cell death pathways (including caspase activation and inflammatory responses) have all been directly or indirectly implicated as consequences of tau mislocalization or oligomerization (20, 40, 43–52).”
From All the Tau We Cannot See (2023) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“For example, through direct visualization of the cortex of Tg4510 P301L mice by multiphoton microscopy, Hyman and colleagues were able to determine that caspase activation, and neuronal death, appeared in many instances to precede tangle formation.”
From All the Tau We Cannot See (2023) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“Indeed, tangles forming did not lead to neuronal death over the course of the several-month imaging period (43, 51).”
From All the Tau We Cannot See (2023) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“Recent data suggest that intracellular protein aggregates of tau have the capacity to seed aggregation of native tau proteins and might propagate their misfolded state in a prion-like manner.”
From Propagation of Tau Pathology in a Model of Early Alzheimer's Disease (2012) · cites this paper as de Calignon et al., 2010
In the citing paper
“The current clinical trial literature is compatible with the idea that AβP-related substances kindle a self-propagating process related to neocortical NFTs, as has been hypothesized (266-269).”
From Correlation of Alzheimer Disease Neuropathologic Changes With Cognitive Status: A Review of the Literature (2012) · cites this paper as [266]
In the citing paper
“whereas tau tangles alone are not sufficient to cause neuronal death”
From Targeted degradation of aberrant tau in frontotemporal dementia patient-derived neuronal cell models (2019) · cites this paper as de Calignon et al., 2010
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Citations
Cites
Tight control of gene expression in mammalian cells by tetracycline-responsive promoters.
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Tau Suppression in a Neurodegenerative Mouse Model Improves Memory Function
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Self-citationControl of memory formation through regulated expression of a CaMKII transgene
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Neuronal loss correlates with but exceeds neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease
Gómez‐Isla, T., Hollister, R., West, H., Mui, S., Growdon, J. H., Petersen, R. C., Parisi, J. E., & Hyman, B. T. (1997) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.410410106 · Cited by 1,489
Self-citationAugustinack, J. C., Schneider, A., Mandelkow, E.-M., & Hyman, B. T. (2002) · Acta Neuropathologica · doi:10.1007/s004010100423 · Cited by 998
Self-citationCaspase cleavage of tau: Linking amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease
Gamblin, T. C., Chen, F., Zambrano, A., Abraha, A., Lagalwar, S., Guillozet, A. L., Lu, M., Fu, Y., Garcia-Sierra, F., LaPointe, N., et al. (2003) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1630428100 · Cited by 831
Hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of tau in mice expressing normal human tau isoforms
Andorfer, C., Kress, Y., Espinoza, M., De Silva, R., Tucker, K. L., Barde, Y., Duff, K., & Davies, P. (2003) · Journal of Neurochemistry · doi:10.1046/j.1471-4159.2003.01879.x · Cited by 722
Ramsden, M., Kotilinek, L., Forster, C., Paulson, J., McGowan, E., SantaCruz, K., Guimaraes, A., Yue, M., Lewis, J., Carlson, G., et al. (2005) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3279-05.2005 · Cited by 702
Self-citationTau fragmentation, aggregation and clearance: the dual role of lysosomal processing
Wang, Y., Martinez-Vicente, M., Krüger, U., Kaushik, S., Wong, E., Mandelkow, E.-M., Cuervo, A. M., & Mandelkow, E. (2009) · Human Molecular Genetics · doi:10.1093/hmg/ddp367 · Cited by 617
Caspase-cleavage of tau is an early event in Alzheimer disease tangle pathology
Rissman, R. A., Poon, W. W., Blurton-Jones, M., Oddo, S., Torp, R., Vitek, M. P., LaFerla, F. M., Rohn, T. T., & Cotman, C. W. (2004) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci200420640 · Cited by 543
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Neuropathological alterations in Alzheimer disease
Serrano-Pozo, A., Frosch, M. P., Masliah, E., & Hyman, B. T. (2011) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a006189 · Cited by 3,345
Self-citationCaspase Functions in Cell Death and DiseasePreprint
McIlwain, D. R., Berger, T., & Mak, T. W. (2013) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a008656 · Cited by 2,702
Tau in physiology and pathology
Wang, Y., & Mandelkow, E. (2016) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn.2015.1 · Cited by 2,251
Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing and Alzheimer's Disease
O'Brien, R. J., & Wong, P. C. (2011) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-061010-113613 · Cited by 2,061
Nelson, P. T., Alafuzoff, I., Bigio, E. H., Bouras, C., Braak, H., Cairns, N. J., Castellani, R. J., Crain, B. J., Davies, P., Tredici, K. D., et al. (2012) · Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology · doi:10.1097/nen.0b013e31825018f7 · Cited by 2,050
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- de Calignon, A., Fox, L. M., Pitstick, R., Carlson, G. A., Bacskai, B. J., Spires-Jones, T. L., & Hyman, B. T.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- McLaughlin Research Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hyman, Bradley T.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2010-03-31
- Volume
- 464
- Issue
- 7292
- Pages
- 1201-1204
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC3091360
- OpenAlex
- W2100026237
- Cited by
- 517
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 39.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (AG-08487, R01AG026249, R01AG008487, AG026249, P50AG005134, K99AG033670, P30AG062421)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Keywords
- caspase activation, neurofibrillary tangles, tau protein, Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, tau transgenic mice, neuronal survival, neurodegeneration, tau truncation, APOE ε4, APOE3, APOE2, APOE genotype, multiphoton imaging, tau aggregation
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Enzyme Activation, Humans, Mice, Transgenic, Neurons, Protein Processing, Post-Translational, Solubility, Time Factors, Neurofibrillary Tangles, tau Proteins, Cell Death, Caspases, Mice
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