MAPT and neurodegenerative disease: AD is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized clinically by cognitive decline and behavioural disturbances and pathologically by the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles formed by tau fibrils, together with degeneration of neurons and their synapses, glial activation, and neuroinflammation [37, 149, 314].