Table 5.

Tau and caspases.

Model/disease	Tau isoform	Caspase activation	References
Tg4510 mouse	P310L tau (neuronal expression)	Activation of caspase-3 precedes NFT. Following doxycycline treatment (to suppress tau expression), active caspase-3 levels in tangle-bearing neurons are diminished.	(253)
WT mouse	h4R and caspase-3 truncated tau (D421)	h4R-tau injection triggers neuronal caspase-3 activation associated with tau truncation and aggregation. In truncated tau-injected animals, D421+ neurons showed colocalization of cleaved tau with the endogenous tau, together with an accumulation of misfolded tau.	(253)
Traumatic brain injury (rat)		Active caspase-3 and D421-cleaved caspase-3 truncated tau presence within GFAP+, CD68+, and EBA+ cells, in the corpus callosum.	(254)
Alzheimer's disease	NFT	Caspase-3,−6,−7,−8, and−9 upregulation, in hippocampus and cortex.	(69, 255–258)
Alzheimer's disease	NFT	Active caspase-3 within NFT in the limbic cortex considered one of the earliest biomarkers of AD.	(259)
Alzheimer's disease	NFT	Active caspase-3 with a high degree of colocalization in neurons, astrocytes and BVs, mainly in hippocampus and entorhinal cortex.	(256)
Alzheimer's disease	NFT	Activation of caspase-3 in CD68+ cells (microglia) in the frontal cortex.	(248)
Frontotemporal dementia	NFT	Neurons and degenerating astrocytes positive for active caspase-3, in the temporal lobe.	(260)
Vascular dementia	NFT	Caspase-3 derived tau fragments found in NFT in the hippocampus, DG and frontal cortex. Active caspase-3 (colocalizing with cleaved tau) detected in BVs and pre-tangle neurons.	(261)
Alzheimer's disease	NFT	2–3-fold increase of active caspase-6 in the temporal and frontal cortex. Caspase-6 cleaved tau found into intracellular, extracellular, and even immature tangles.	(257)