MAPT and Alzheimer disease: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia (Hyman et al., 2012), is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by the degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis, and the presence of extracellular plaques beta amyloid (Aβ) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of phosphorylated tau.