Cerebral Microvascular Accumulation of Tau Oligomers in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Tauopathies.

The importance of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative diseases is increasingly recognized, however, the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. There is growing evidence that in addition to Aβ deposition, accumulation of hyperphosphorylated oligomeric tau contributes significantly to AD etiology. Tau oligomers are toxic and it has been suggested that they propagate in a "prion-like" fashion, inducing endogenous tau misfolding in cells.