Preparation and Characterization of Neurotoxic Tau Oligomers.

Tau aggregation is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and many other neorodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies. Tau aggregates take on many forms, and their formation is a multistage process with intermediate stages. Recently, tau oligomers have emerged as the pathogenic species in tauopathies and a possible mediator of amyloid-β toxicity in Alzheimer's disease. Here, we use a novel, physiologically relevant method (oligomer cross-seeding) to prepare homogeneous populations of tau oligomers and characterize these oligomem in vitro. We show that both Aβ and a-synuclein oligomers induce tau aggregation and the formation of β-sheet-rich neurotoxic tau oligomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]