Concentrations of P-Tau 20 times higher than those detected in patients with Alzheimer’s in newborn children: the role of the protein should be rethought?
For some time the abundance of a pathological form of the Tau protein In the brain it is considered one of the two most recognizable tracks of the presence of Alzheimer’s disease. Imagine the surprise of a group of scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, when it detected incredibly high levels of this same protein in the group conceptually farther from the elderly with dementia: newborns. The research, published on Brain Communicationsopens new questions about the function of the Tau.
The Tau protein and Alzheimer
The Tau protein contributes to the normal functioning of neurons. However, there are cases in which this protein does not work properly due to a chemical reaction that takes place excessively (hyperfosphorylation). In these cases we speak of tau-hyperfosphorylated or p-tau. The P-Tau joins very easily and forms tangle, called neurofibrillary tangles, inside the neurons, determining the death of the nerve cells. The tangles of Tau protein are considered, together with the beta-amyloid plates, one of the pathological processes typical of Alzheimer’s.
The P-Tau in babies
The authors of the new study measured the levels of P-Tau in the plasma (the liquid part of the blood) of 462 people, including term and premature babies, healthy subjects and patients with Alzheimer’s. They found that the levels of P-Tau in infants were much higher than those present in the volunteers of other age groups and even higher – even 20 times! – of those detected in patients with Alzheimer.
When scientists analyzed the concentrations of P-Tau in premature babies, forced to long stays in the hospital, they realized that they were remained very high up to 18 weeks from birth To then decrease in the following months, returning to the levels observed in young adults. Find high levels of P-Tau in those who approached old age Instead, it was associated with a probable Alzheimer type dementia.
At the beginning and end of life
As he explained to the site of Ifls Fernando Gonzalez-Ortiz, the main author of the study: «Tau phosphorylation plays a fundamental role in development: in the construction and destruction of the brain»; The process, so prevalent in the initial phases and in the final ones of life (when the dementias usually arise), would seem involved in opposite mechanisms and which we do not fully understand.
«The P-Tau protein has always been considered a characteristic biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease. This has meant that less attention has been paid to its possible physiological roles and how its levels can float over the course of life.
We have always thought it was toxic and harmful, as it seems to be in the case of Alzheimer’s, but the question is: what happens in the development brain that somehow manages to manage the high concentrations of P-Tau? “.
The P-Tau involved in brain development?
A hypothesis is that the unusually high levels of the protein allow the brain of infants of generate new synaptic connections And they are therefore crucial for neurosviluppo. If so, also in other subsequent stages of brain development, a new increase in protein levels should take place. The researchers will also try to understand if such high levels of P -Tau in infants are related to the development of neurological conditions in the future – for example, if they can indicate a greater risk of Alzheimer’s in old age.
For now, the only certainty advanced by the research is that focusing on a single biomarator without analyzing the clinical context It is not useful for the purpose of a diagnosis.
