Water may drive tau protein tangles in Alzheimer's, study finds

Researchers at Northwestern University and UC Santa Barbara identified an anchor point on tau protein around amino acid 300 where molecules meet before forming pathogenic tangles. A thin layer of water molecules at this site helps drive the process, and blocking it substantially hindered fiber growth. The findings were published in PNAS.

• Anchor site lies around amino acid 300 of the tau protein
• Process described as 'dock-and-lock': docking first, then locking into the fiber
• Chemically blocking the site inhibited growth of tau fibrils
• Experiments used a shortened tau construct with a disease-linked mutation