Tau depletion prevents progressive blood-brain barrier damage in a mouse model of tauopathy

Introduction The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is damaged in tauopathies, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is thought to contribute to pathogenesis later in the disease course. In AD, BBB dysfunction has been associated with amyloid beta (As) pathology, but the role of tau in this process is not well characterized. Since increased BBB permeability is found in tauopathies without As pathology, like PSP, we suspected that tau accumulation alone could not only be sufficient, but even more important than As for BBB damage.