Monalisa Thamed

• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences
• Can early hyperphosphorylated tau depositions in mixed Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body disease give insights into disease progression?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Lewy body disease (LBD) are leading causes of dementia in the elderly and are characterised by hallmark pathologies in the brain. The presence of pathologies associated with both diseases indicates mixed AD/LBD, however often the symptoms of one pathology are masked by the other one. The brain regions of these patients show the presence of toxic proteins including hyperphosphprylated tau (HP-T), which is associated with AD. We analysed the amount of HP-T present in the brain of patients affected by AD, LBD and mixed AD/LBD. Mouse antibodies were used to detect two different conformational changes of the tau protein. The results showed that mixed AD/LBD cases with clinical symptoms of AD had more “intermediary” (established) tau suggesting that AD was the initial cause of dementia whereas mixed cases with clinical symptoms of LBD had more “early” tau, showing that LBD was the initial cause of dementia.

Funding source: Biomedical Research Centre

Supervisor: Professor Johannes Attems