TAU

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tau mean? 

• TAU (noun)
  The noun TAU has 1 sense:

1. the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet

  Familiarity information: TAU used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAU (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("tau" is a kind of...):

alphabetic character; letter; letter of the alphabet (the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech)

Holonyms ("tau" is a member of...):

Greek alphabet (the alphabet used by ancient Greeks)

 Context examples 

Microtubule-associated protein tau (758 aa, ~79 kDa) is encoded by the human MAPT gene.

(Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau, NCI Thesaurus)

Similar results were observed with an antibody against tau.

(Pathogenic tau and cognitive impairment are precipitated by a high-salt diet, National Institutes of Health)

Tau is also connected to development of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and is a marker of neuronal injury following severe traumatic brain injuries.

(Biomarker in blood may help predict recovery time for sports concussions, NIH)

Additionally, down-regulation or inhibition of PP2A increases the hyper-phosphorylation of tau.

(Alzheimer's Disease Pathway BioCarta, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

APOE binding to HSPG has been implicated as one mechanism that may contribute to the amyloid and tau protein deposits that destroy the brain.

(Unique case of disease resistance reveals possible Alzheimer’s treatment, National Institutes of Health)

These findings suggest that long after the primary brain injury, tau accumulations alone may contribute to chronic neurological symptoms.

(Key protein found to have role in long-term complications from traumatic brain injury, NIH)

Those long tangles "disrupt the ability of neurons to communicate with one another," the school points out, adding that tau is "normally a stabilizing structure inside of neurons."

(Researchers May Have Found Way to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Alternatively, intracellular Abeta may contribute to pathology by facilitating tau hyper-phosphorylation, disrupting mitochondria function, and triggering calcium dysfunction.

(Alzheimer's Disease Pathway KEGG, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

Similarly, individuals who exercised more had lower levels of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid, including lower tau, a protein that builds up in the brains of people living with Alzheimer's disease.

(Rare Alzheimer's Disease Patients May Delay Cognitive Decline with Exercise, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The researchers adapted a diagnostic test originally developed for prion diseases to detect abnormal clusters of tau protein.

(New test detects protein associated with Alzheimer’s and CTE, National Institutes of Health)