Date of Award

1-1-2018

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Organizational Unit

Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Martin Margittai, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Michael Kerwin

Third Advisor

Michelle Knowles

Fourth Advisor

David Patterson

Fifth Advisor

Mark Seimans

Keywords

Alzheimer's disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Protein aggregation, Tau, Tauopathy

Abstract

The protein Tau is found in neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease and over 20 other neurodegenerative diseases. An assay has been developed to detect minute amounts of fibrils from human brain tissue. This assay subjects brain tissue extract and recombinant Tau to several rounds of sonication and incubation. Incubation allows recombinant Tau to add itself to the ends of the existing fibrils in brain tissue extract. Sonication breaks the existing fibrils in the brain tissue extract offering more ends for Tau to add onto. Cycles of sonication and incubation have been shown to allow for amplification of Tau fibrils from Alzheimer's disease tissue. This assay can be used not only for detection, but also to note differences between tauopathies and to look at various agents that have been shown to block fibril growth.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Emily Rickman Hager

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

81 p.

Discipline

Biostatistics

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