Model tests link a water-capped tau site to halted fibril growth

Tests on a 19-amino-acid mutated tau fragment

ScienceAlert reports that researchers studied a 19-amino-acid fragment of mutated tau using laboratory tests and computer modeling. They identified a water-capped, water-repelling hotspot where tau can begin staged docking into rigid fibrils. The report says that masking this hotspot with a chemical tag stopped fibril growth in further tests.

How tau misfolding propagates through the brain has remained a longstanding question. The reported work used a mutated 19-amino-acid tau fragment model, rather than demonstrating an intervention in patients.

In the reported model tests, chemically covering the water-capped hotspot stopped fibril growth, identifying the site as a possible target for further drug research.

A fragment model does not establish treatment benefit

Tau fibrils are associated with Alzheimer's disease and some other dementias. If the reported mechanism holds up beyond this fragment model, the docking site could guide efforts to study fibril formation and explore ways of interrupting it. The work does not demonstrate a treatment or patient benefit.