Infographic: Leaky Gates

A study explores how nuclear pore complexes are disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease.

Written byAshley Yeager
| 1 min read

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In healthy neurons, tau protein is confined to microtubules.

In Alzheimer’s, tau aggregates disrupt the flow of proteins and RNA into and out of the nucleus of neuronal cells and also draw the protein into the cytoplasm. Nup98’s presence in the cytoplasm leads to continued aggregation of tau into the neurofibrillary tangles that serve as a signature of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Meet the Author

  • Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

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Published In

November 2018

Intelligent Science

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