Intranasal TIDM peptide for tauopathy

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R21 · $157,000 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Effective reduction of aggregated tau from the brain parenchyma is expected to reduce the development and progression of both sporadic and familial Alzheimer’s disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other tauopathies. However, pathways for lowering aggregated tau from the brain are poorly understood. Neuroinflammation is another hallmark of neurodegenerative disorders and recently it has been shown that the progression of phospho-tau pathology is driven by microglia and that microglial activation forms the crucial link between tau aggregation and brain damage. Here, we want to test a novel hypothesis that intranasal administration of wild type TLR2-interacting domain of MyD88 (wtTIDM) peptide suppresses microglial inflammation and decreases tauopathy in P301S transgenic mice via TLR2. A positive outcome of this grant proposal will delineate a new crosstalk between TLR2 and tauopathy and describe if selective targeting of activated status of TLR2 by wtTIDM peptide reduces tangle pathology, highlighting the discovery of a prospective intranasal agent to reduce tau pathology in AD, PSP, FTD, and other tauopathies. Administrative supplement: TLR2 is present in different cell types in the brain. For example, in the brain, in addition to microglia, TLR2 is also expressed in neurons. Therefore, here, we will investigate the role of neuronal and microglial TLR2 in tauopathy and wtTIDM peptide-mediated clearance of tauopathy and improvement in cognitive behaviors in P301S transgenic mice.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10274908
Project number
3R21AG069229-01S1
Recipient
RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Principal Investigator
KALIPADA PAHAN
Activity code
R21
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$157,000
Award type
3
Project period
2020-09-15 → 2022-08-31