Literature Relections

Primary Literature Reflections

Article Title: First-in-man tau vaccine targeting structural determinants essential for pathological tau–tau interaction reduces tau oligomerisation and neurofibrillary degeneration in an Alzheimer’s disease model

Journal Published In: Alzheimer's Research & Therapy

Publication Date: 2014


What is the main purpose of this work?
The main purpose of this work as to comprehend how the tau-tau protein interacts in Alzheimer’s. This study provides the outlook of how a vaccine could help reduce neuro degeneration within a human being.   This also provides the concept that scientists are making a bounding leap into the study of neuro degeneration of Alzheimer’s patients, which may be a building block to more studies.


Give a brief background in your own words:
This study is to help with look at the tau-tau interaction, which occurs in individuals with neural degeneration problems, such as patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain and disabling regions causing issues in cognitive function. Due to the degeneration of the brain, scientists have been trying to find a new drug in which will help patients have symptoms either slow down or stop.   The tau protein is a protein in which is associated with microtubules.

Choose 2 figures and answer the following-

Figure 4
Explain the methods used to obtain the data in the figure.
Beam tests were performed on transgenic rats to see if the tau vaccine improves sensorimotor functions

How was the data obtained for each figure?
Beam tests were performed on transgenic rats to see if the tau vaccine improves sensorimotor functions. A) was to see the escape latency, B) was the number of times the hind-limbs slipped during the beam test, C) was to see the neuroscale of each of the groups and how the vaccine was going to affect the neuroscore.

How was the data analyzed?
The data was analyzed by a beam test to see if the vaccine would...