Tauopathies encompass a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau inclusions (FTLD-tau), for which there are currently no successful treatments, El.kz reports citing nature.com.

Here is the  impaired glycogen metabolism in the brain of a tauopathy Drosophila melanogaster model and people with AD, indicating a link between tauopathies and glycogen metabolism.

The breakdown of neuronal glycogen ameliorates the tauopathy phenotypes in flies and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons from people with FTLD-tau.

Glycogen breakdown redirects glucose flux to the pentose phosphate pathway and alleviates oxidative stress. The findings uncover a critical role for the neuroprotective effects of dietary restriction (DR) by increasing glycogen breakdown. Mechanistically, potential interaction between tau protein and glycogen, suggesting a vicious cycle in which tau binding promotes glycogen accumulation in neurons, which in turn exacerbates tau accumulation which further disrupts cellular homeostasis.

The studies identify impaired glycogen metabolism as a key hallmark for tauopathies and offer a promising therapeutic target in tauopathy and other neurodegenerative diseases.