In November 1887, Patrick Joseph P.J. Kennedy married Mary Augusta Hickey, daughter of James Hickey of Cork, Ireland, and Margaret M. Field, also of Ireland. Their son, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, was born on September 6, 1888 in East Boston.
Tau is a protein found in neurons, where it works to stabilize the shape and function of the cell. As part of normal function, proteins in the body fold, unfold and refold into different shapes in order to perform specific functions, and when they are no longer needed, they are broken down and recycled by the cell.
Some papers suggest that rapidly progressive forms of the disease may be distinguished by particularly low levels of CSF AÎ²42 and particularly high levels of tau and phosphorylated tau, although variations among labs make it hard to set absolute cutoff values (see Snider et al., 2009 and Wallin et al., 2010).