Tau neurotoxicity without the lesions: a fly challenges a tangled web
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Assaying Locomotor, Learning, and Memory Deficits in Drosophila Models of Neurodegeneration
Published on: March 11, 2011
1Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, Royal Free & University College Medical School, Windeyer Building, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JF, UK.
Trends in Neurosciences
|June 25, 2002
Abstract:
Models of neurodegenerative disorders are challenging the classical defining role of tangles in neurotoxicity. In flies, tau overexpression is sufficient to cause neuronal death without the formation of fibrillar aggregates. This parallels observations in models of polyglutamine disorders and suggests that aggregated protein might not be the toxic species responsible for neuronal dysfunction and cell death.

