Tackling Tau to Treat Alzheimer’s

UC San Diego researchers and collaborators in Italy identified an inhibitor that may be effective against DYRK1A, an emerging target for Alzheimer’s disease. In the lab, the inhibitor reduced phosphate tags added to tau — a protein that accumulates in Alzheimer’s neurons — by enzymes called kinases, thus stabilizing cell structures. They say this kinase inhibitor is a promising prototype for new therapeutics that tackle tau hyperphosphorylation, which occurs in some neurodegenerative diseases.