Development in tau-based drug for fundamental treatment of dementia

Yoshiyuki Soeda, Akihiko Takashima

Department of Aging Neurobiology, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology

Microtubule-associated protein tau was abnormally modified in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Occurrence of the abnormal tau has been involved in development of cognitive dysfunction and neuronal loss, indicating that tau-focused drug may be valuable in therapy for neurodegenerative disease. This study provides two topics. First, data obtained from clinical trials that evaluated tau-based drugs are introduced. Second, we discovered a novel tau aggregation inhibitor, and elucidated the inhibitory mechanism of the compound on tau aggregation. These data and results suggest that tau aggregation is an important target for therapy of tau-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Address correspondence to Dr. Yoshiyuki Soeda, Department of Aging Neurobiology, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology(7-430 Morioka-machi, Obu, Aichi 474-8511, Japan)