Production of recombinant tau oligomers in vitro

The pathological aggregation of the tau protein is a common characteristic of many neurodegenerative diseases. There is strong interest in characterizing the potentially toxic nature of tau oligomers. These nonfibrillar, soluble multimers appear to be more toxic than neurofibrillary tangles made up of filamentous tau. However, reliable production, purification, and verification of tau oligomers can provide certain challenges. Here, we provide a series of methods that address these issues. First, recombinant tau is produced using Escherichia coli, purified through affinity, size-exclusion, and anion-exchange chromatography steps and quantified using an SDS Lowry protein quantitation assay. Aggregation of tau is induced using arachidonic acid, and oligomers are purified by centrifugation over a sucrose step gradient. Finally, we describe a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that utilizes the tau oligomer-specific TOC1 antibody to confirm the presence of oligomeric tau. Together, these steps provide a very simple and reliable method for producing tau oligomers that can be used in downstream applications.