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Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), one of the neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), consist of insoluble accumulations of paired, helical filaments composed of the protein, tau. Normally, the function of the tau protein is to provide stability to the microtubule network within neurons. Tau becomes hyperphosphorylated and is recognized as abnormal with ubiquitin tagging, a process that normally promotes the degradation of a protein. However, in the case of tangle formation, hyperphosphorylated tau is not broken down or catabolized and begins to accumulate. Intermediate stages of tangle formation represent varying degrees of tau phosphorylation and accumulation. Along with senile plaques, NFTs are the basis on which a neuropathological diagnosis of AD is made. Figure 1 displays NFTs in brain.
Neurofibrillary tangles stained with a modified Bielschowsky silver stain (Photo courtesy...
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Grabowski, T. J., & Damasio, A. R. (2004). Definition, clinical features and neuroanatomical basis of dementia. In M. M. Esiri, V. M.-Y. Lee, & J. Q. Trojanowski (Eds.), The neuropathology of dementia: Second edition (pp. 1–33). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Tschanz, J.T. (2011). Neurofibrillary Tangles. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_492
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_492
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