Cited by 18Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Continuous Monitoring of Tau-Induced Neurotoxicity in Patient-Derived iPSC-Neurons

Open access
Oakley, Derek H., Klickstein, Naomi, Commins, Caitlin, Chung, Mirra, Dujardin, Simon, Bennett, Rachel E., Hyman, Bradley T., Frosch, Matthew P.·2021·The Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

Tau aggregation within neurons is a critical feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies. It is believed that soluble pathologic tau species seed the formation of tau aggregates in a prion-like manner and propagate through connected neurons during the progression of disease. Both soluble and aggregated forms of tau are thought to have neurotoxic properties. In addition, different strains of misfolded tau may cause differential neurotoxicity. In this work, we present an accelerated human neuronal model of tau-induced neurotoxicity that incorporates both soluble tau species and tau aggregation. Using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) neurons expressing a tau aggregation biosensor, we develop a cell culture system that allows continuous assessment of both induced tau aggregation and neuronal viability at single-cell resolution for periods of >1 week. We show that exogenous tau “seed” uptake, as measured by tau repeat domain (TauRD) reporter aggregation, increases the risk for subsequent neuronal death in vitro . These results are the first to directly visualize neuronal TauRD aggregation and subsequent cell death in single human iPSC neurons. Specific morphologic strains or patterns of TauRD aggregation are then identified and associated with differing neurotoxicity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that familial AD iPSC neurons expressing the PSEN1 L435F mutation exhibit accelerated TauRD aggregation kinetics and a tau strain propagation bias when compared with control iPSC neurons. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neuronal intracellular aggregation of the microtubule binding protein tau occurs in Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative tauopathies. Tau aggregates are believed to spread from neuron to neuron via prion-like misfolded tau seeds. Our work develops a human neuronal live-imaging system to visualize seeded tau aggregation and tau-induced neurotoxicity within single neurons. Using an aggregation-sensing tau reporter, we find that neuronal uptake and propagation of tau seeds reduces subsequent survival. In addition, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) neurons carrying an Alzheimer's disease-causing mutation in presenilin-1 undergo tau seeding more rapidly than control iPSC neurons. However, they do not show subsequent differences in neuronal survival. Finally, specific morphologies of tau aggregates are associated with increased neurotoxicity.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.2590-20.2021

Cites

50 of 50 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Mitochondrial abnormalities, synaptic loss and dysfunction, altered axonal transport, and activation of cell death pathways have been implicated as consequences of tau mislocalization or oligomerization.

    “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 [48]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Oakley, D. H., Klickstein, N., Commins, C., Chung, M., Dujardin, S., Bennett, R. E., Hyman, B. T., & Frosch, M. P.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Oakley, Derek H.
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Published
2021-04-23
Volume
41
Issue
19
Pages
4335-4348
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W3154765321
Cited by
18
References
50
Citations by year
2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1
FWCI
2.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Alzheimer's Association (2018-AASCF-592307, 2018-AARF-591935)
  • Jack Statter Foundation
  • HHS | NIH | National Institute on Aging (P30AG062421, 1R01AG058002-01)
  • Cure Alzheimer's Fund
  • Martin L. and Sylvia Seevak Hoffman Fellowship for Alzheimer's Research
  • Dr. and Mrs. E. P. Richardson, Jr Fund for Neuropathology
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › 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
tau aggregation, Alzheimer's disease, tauopathy, tau seeding, prion-like propagation, familial Alzheimer's disease, neuronal viability, live-cell imaging, single-cell resolution
MeSH terms
Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Cell Survival, Cells, Cultured, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, tau Proteins, Neurotoxicity Syndromes, Tauopathies, Mice, Presenilin-1, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review