The Unseen Link: Mood Disorders in Later Years and the Roots of Dementia
Tau Protein Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease (YouTube link ) The Tangled Fate of Tau: How Misfolded Proteins Disrupt the Aging Brain In a healthy brain, a vast network of roughly 86 billion neurons hums with activity, exchanging electrical and chemical signals to keep the mind sharp. At the heart of each neuron’s structure and function lies the tau protein , which binds to microtubules through its repeat domain . These microtubules act like sturdy scaffolding , maintaining the cell’s shape while serving as highways for rapid transport . Vesicles, mitochondria, and other cellular components zip along these pathways to reach the synaptic junction, where neurons connect and communicate. But as the brain ages , this finely tuned system begins to falter. Neurons lose some of their ability to clear out waste, and a substance called lipofuscin starts to build up. In this cluttered environment, tau protein can bind to the wrong targets and misfold, twisting into abnormal shapes ....