MAPT and Alzheimer disease: AD is characterized by the presence of amyloid plaques (APs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) containing hyper phosphorylated Tau and is associated with significantly increased numbers of activated glia and severe neuronal loss in the AD brains (Pekny and Nilsson, 2005; Streit et al., 2009; Thangavel et al., 2012).