Newswise — ROCHESTER, Minn. — The toxic protein tau is a key biological feature in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Yet the factors that make people susceptible or resistant to tau accumulation are not well-understood. A preliminary Mayo Clinic study shows that inherited DNA variants may be associated with developing tau deposits in older adults. The research will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 72nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 25–May 1.
“The location and burden of tau in the brain is closely related to cognitive symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease, but we don’t know nearly enough about how and why tau accumulates the way it does,” says first author Vijay Ramanan, M.D., Ph.D., a behavioral neurology fellow at Mayo Clinic. “These findings point to genetic factors being key in that process, which may help us better predict who…
