VALIDATION OF PHARMACEUTICALS LEADING TO THE REDUCTION OF INCLUSION OF TAU EXON 10

Tau is a protein normally associated with the assembly of microtubules, but it tends to hyperphosphorylate leading to its aggregation which is a major cause of Alzheimer\u27s disease. When alternative splicing includes tau exon 10, neurofibrillary tangles are more prevalent, so our laboratory developed a luciferase reporter assay to screen compounds that decrease tau exon 10. Prior to our project 1,040 FDA approved drugs were screened for initial luciferase activity. Our project\u27s purpose was to further screen key five compounds identified in the original screen using the luciferase assay and RT-PCR. All five compounds tested produced statistically significant increases in luciferase activity relative to DMSO control at 5 uM concentrations, validating the original screening