MAPT and brain injury: Omalu suggests that brain trauma results in kinase accumulation from neuroinflammatory processes (3) such as free radical generation from oxidative stress, microglia upregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and calcium imbalance, which result in hyperphosphorylated tau (3, 26, 28, 29) Recent work has also highlighted the role of tau acetylation (ac-tau) in the progression of CTE, and increased major histocompatibility receptor expression on neurons (27, 30).