Tau protein disassembles in Alzheimer's disease, leading to tau tangles and cellular transport failure.

“The other is a protein that we know probably less about, which is a protein called tau protein. And that sits inside of cells. And it creates a support structure for communicating and funneling many of the critical ingredients up and down your nerve cells to keep them in rude health. And during Alzheimer's disease, that protein starts to sort of fall apart and dismantle. And you get these sort of tau tangles. And the structure of the nerve cell and its ability to transport all of the ingredients that it needs to operate starts to collapse and fails like a tunnel collapsing down.”