▪ Abstract The defining neuropathological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease are
abundant filamentous tau lesions and deposits of fibrillar amyloid β peptides. Prominent
filamentous tau inclusions and brain degeneration in the absence of β-amyloid deposits are
also hallmarks of neurodegenerative tauopathies exemplified by sporadic corticobasal
degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, and Pick's disease, as well as by hereditary
frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). Because …