Animal models reveal role for tau phosphorylation in human disease

Jürgen Götz (1) , Amadeus Gladbach (1) , Luis Pennanen (2) , Janet van Eersel (1) , Andreas Schild (3) , Della David (2) , Lars M. Ittner (1)

1 The University of Sydney
2 University of California
3 HMS - Harvard Medical School [Boston]

Many proteins that are implicated in human disease are posttranslationally modified. This includes the microtubule-associated protein tau that is deposited in a hyperphosphorylated form in brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. The focus of this review article is on the physiological and pathological phosphorylation of tau, the relevance of aberrant phosphorylation for disease, the role of kinases and phosphatases in this process, its modeling in transgenic mice, flies and worms, and implications of phosphorylation for therapeutic intervention.

Mots clés: Alzheimer's disease; amyloid; Drosophila; frontotemporal dementia; kinase; mice; nematode; phosphatase; phosphorylation; tau; transgenic

Jürgen Götz, Amadeus Gladbach, Luis Pennanen, Janet van Eersel, Andreas Schild, et al.. Animal models reveal role for tau phosphorylation in human disease. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease, 2010, 1802 (10), pp.860. ⟨10.1016/j.bbadis.2009.09.008⟩. ⟨hal-00616904⟩