Boronate-Tau Mediated Uptake in Neurons

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Pérez, Mar^a | Cuadros, Raquel^{b; c} | Pallas-Bazarra, Noemi^{b; c} | García, Carlos^b | Langa, Elena^{b; c} | Jurado-Arjona, Jerónimo^{b; c} | Hernández, Félix^{b; c} | Avila, Jesús^{b; c; *}

Affiliations: [a] Departamento de Anatomía Histología y Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina UAM, Madrid, Spain | [b] Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain | [c] Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Jesús Avila, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Calle Nicolás Cabrera 1, Campus de Cantoblanco UAM, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Tel.: +34 911964564; Fax: +34 911964420; E-mail: javila@cbm.uam.es.

Abstract: We modified tau protein with boronic acid to facilitate its delivery into non neural or neural cultured cells lacking tau protein. Our results indicate that the incorporated tau promotes the formation of cytoplasmic extensions in non-neuronal cells, as well as the appearance of neurites in cultured tau knockout hippocampal neurons. In addition, boronated tau is incorporated into hippocampal neurons of tau knockout mice after intracranial injection in vivo. These findings describe a novel method to deliver exogenous tau protein into cells.

Keywords: Boronic acid, protein delivery, tau protein

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-131655

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 143-151, 2014