The pathology of the neuronal cytoskeleton in Alzheimer's disease.

The two characteristic neuropathological lesions of Alzheimer's disease are the neurofibrillary tangles and the senile plaques. Neurofibrillary tangles are made of abnormal filaments (PHF) accumulating in neurons and mainly composed of a modified form of the microtubule-associated protein tau (PHF-tau). Senile plaques are composed of a cluster of dystrophic neurites surrounding an extracellular deposit of amyloid fibers made of a 42 amino-acid peptide (beta-amyloid peptide). The abnormal filaments contain the complete sequences of the different tau isoforms. The PHF-tau proteins can be distinguished from the normal tau proteins by the presence of several phosphorylated sites. One of these sites is phosphorylated by a calcium-calmodulin-dependent kinase. The relationship between PHF-tau and the cytoskeletal pathology in Alzheimer's disease is further discussed.