Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, May, 2020

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod)
Other Authors: Douglas A. Lauffenburger.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127885
_version_ 1826192286610882560
author Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod)
author2 Douglas A. Lauffenburger.
author_facet Douglas A. Lauffenburger.
Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod)
author_sort Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod)
collection MIT
description Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, May, 2020
first_indexed 2024-09-23T09:08:53Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/127885
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T09:08:53Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/1278852020-10-09T03:31:47Z Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod) Douglas A. Lauffenburger. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering Biological Engineering. Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, May, 2020 Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages. 85-97). Tau neurofibrillary tangles or aggregates are a common neuropathological feature found in a number of neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease. Understanding the kinetics of this aggregate build up, how it varies across patients, and how aggregation might be influenced by intracellular pathways is critical for both a deeper knowledge of these disorders as well as identification of potential therapeutic targets. To this end, I employed an in vitro tau aggregation assay to study the kinetics of tau aggregation as it relates to aggregates in sporadic Alzheimer's disease. I found that the formation of aggregates was a logistic process, with a lag phase, an exponential rise phase, and a plateau phase. Aggregation kinetics varied significantly between different cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease, paralleling the heterogeneity that is observed in the clinical presentation of Alzheimer's disease. Likewise, I found that inhibition of intracellular pathways of macroautophagy and endosomal microautopahgy heterogeneously increased tau aggregation and changed tau aggregation kinetics, dependent upon the case of Alzheimer's disease. These results inform that tau aggregates vary significantly not just between disorders, but even within disorders, and that protein degradation pathways uniquely process aggregates, perhaps potentiated by further molecular differences in aggregate structure or composition. by Tarun Kamath. M. Eng. M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering 2020-10-08T21:28:47Z 2020-10-08T21:28:47Z 2020 2020 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127885 1196910130 eng MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 97 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Biological Engineering.
Kamath, Tarun(Tarun Vinod)
Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title_full Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title_fullStr Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title_full_unstemmed Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title_short Tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
title_sort tau aggregation is heterogeneous across cases of sporadic alzheimer s disease and is influenced by autophagy pathways in vitro
topic Biological Engineering.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127885
work_keys_str_mv AT kamathtaruntarunvinod tauaggregationisheterogeneousacrosscasesofsporadicalzheimersdiseaseandisinfluencedbyautophagypathwaysinvitro