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A New Assay to Identify Specific Tauopathies

A new assay shows promise for identifying specific tau aggregates associated with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration, and other uncommon tauopathies. Developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the assay— called real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC)—amplifies small samples of misfolded protein, in this case 4-repeat tau, collected from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in living patients and autopsied tissue from pathologicallyconfirmed cases. “It has become apparent that tau filaments have different conformations that can be faithfully propagated to yield various phenotypes and pathologies,” said Byron Caughey, PhD, a senior investigator at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories, who helped develop the assay. “We need a way to correctly identify these diseases.” This is the first cell-free assay to demonstrate tau seeding activity in the CSF collected from living patients, he said. Six tau isoforms are expressed in the human adult brain, three of which contain three microtubule binding repeats and three with four repeats, Dr. Caughey explained. Ultimately, treatments may have to target these different types of tau aggregates. A new Assay to identify Specific tauopathies