The role of Tau RNA complex formation in tau function and tauopathy disorders

Pathological tau characterizes Alzheimer’s disease, FTLD‐tau, and other tauopathy disorders. Canonically, tau functions as a microtubule binding and stabilizing protein. The molecular mechanisms of tau mediated neurodegeneration remain incompletely understood. Recent studies from our group and others have shown that RNA binding proteins modulate the severity of tau pathology. Further, RNA has previously been demonstrated to drive tau aggregation in vitro. We hypothesize that tau itself may interact physically with RNA and/or RNA binding proteins, thereby altering tau MT related functions.