Does tau depletion prevent progressive blood-brain barrier damage in a mouse model of tauopathy?
For the first time, these data demonstrate that tau alone can initiate breakdown of the BBB, but the BBB is remarkably resilient, maintaining its integrity in the face of marked brain atrophy, neuroinflammation and toxic tau accumulation. Moreover, the BBB can recover integrity when tau levels are reduced. Thus, late stage interventions targeting tau may slow the vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia that occur in tauopathies.
These results suggest that SSRI augmentation with usual clinical doses of pindolol does not increase central synaptic 5-HT neurotransmission sufficient to induce an enhanced neuroendocrine response.