MAPT and dementia: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia among the elderly, is characterized clinically by progressive memory loss and other cognitive dysfunctions and pathologically by extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) plaques, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau, together with the loss of neurons and synapses (Citron, 2010).