Nature Communications (Nov 2021)

Tau activates microglia via the PQBP1-cGAS-STING pathway to promote brain inflammation

  • Meihua Jin,
  • Hiroki Shiwaku,
  • Hikari Tanaka,
  • Takayuki Obita,
  • Sakurako Ohuchi,
  • Yuki Yoshioka,
  • Xiaocen Jin,
  • Kanoh Kondo,
  • Kyota Fujita,
  • Hidenori Homma,
  • Kazuyuki Nakajima,
  • Mineyuki Mizuguchi,
  • Hitoshi Okazawa

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26851-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 22

Abstract

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Brain inflammation generally accelerates neurodegeneration but the mechanisms of this are not fully characterised. Here the authors show that PQBP1 in microglia is important for sensing extrinsic Tau 3 R/4 R proteins and triggers an innate immune response through cGAS and STING resulting in cognitive impairment.