MAPT and Alzheimer disease: The cardinal neuropathological features of AD include extracellular accumulations of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide [2], neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) of hyper-phosphorylated tau proteins [3], neuropil threads, dystrophic neuritis [4,5], astrogliosis, microglial activation [6], and overall neurodegeneration of the brain [6,7,8].