Neurofibrillary tangle

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein that are most commonly known as a primary biomarker of Alzheimer's disease.

At stage 0 there are morphologically normal pyramidal cells showing diffuse or fine granular cytoplasmic staining with anti-tau.

[4] More explicitly, intracellular lesions known as pretangles develop when tau is phosphorylated excessively and on improper amino acid residues.

These lesions, over time, develop into filamentous interneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) which interfere with numerous intracellular functions.

Seeking a reliable animal model for tau-related pathologies, researchers expressed the human mutant P301L tau gene in adult mice.

[6] Preliminary research indicates that iron deposits due to hemorrhaging, following traumatic brain injury (TBI), may increase tau pathology.

While TBI does not routinely lead to accelerated NFT formation, further work may determine if other blood components or factors unrelated to hemorrhages are involved in this TBI-induced augmentation of tau pathology.

[8] For example, the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), previously called dementia pugilistica, is highly associated with NFTs and neuropil threads.

The idea that there is a link between aluminium exposure and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles has floated around the scientific community for some time without having been definitively proved or disregarded.

[19] Comorbid depression increased the odds for advanced neuropathologic disease stage even when controlling for age, gender, education and cognitive function.

RNA interference (RNAi) mediated silencing of the CDK5 gene has been proposed as a novel therapeutic strategy against tau pathology, such as neurofibrillary tangles.

[22] Lithium treatment has been shown to reduce the density of neurofibrillary tangles in transgenic models in the hippocampus and spinal cord.