{
  "abstract": "Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles, leading to cognitive decline. Recent research has highlighted the involvement of the gut–brain axis (GBA) in AD progression, suggesting that the disease may also affect the gut.Objective To investigate the transmission of tau from the brain to the gut via the vagus nerve and its impact on gut function, we aimed to develop a novel in vitro system to simulate the GBA.Design We used an AD animal model to examine the spread of tau from the brain to the colon. We also established an innervated colon-on-a-chip model to replicate the key components of the GBA, including vagal motor neurons, enteric neurons and colon epithelial cells.Results In ADLP APT mice, we observed tau aggregates in the nerve plexuses of the colon and confirmed that tau spreads from the hippocampus to the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus and enteric neurons in the colon. This tau transmission was barely observed in ADLPAPT mice with vagotomy, suggesting the possibility of a neural pathway through which tau pathology can propagate from the brain to the colon. The colon-on-a-chip system effectively mimicked this pathway, showing that tau could be transmitted along the vagal motor neuron to enteric neurons and impact colon epithelium stability.Conclusions This study demonstrates that tau pathology can propagate from the brain to the colon via the vagus nerve, providing evidence supporting the brain-to-gut axis in AD.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Hyunjung Choi"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Seok Beom Hong"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Hui-Wen Liu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Hyeonggyu Song"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "June-Hyun Jeong"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Kyusik Ahn"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Biomedical Science, Asan Medical Institute of Convergence Science and Technology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "SeongJun Kim"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Jaehoon Song"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Jong Won Han"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Dongjoon Lee"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Center for Advanced Biomolecular Recognition, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Jinchul Ahn"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Min-Seon Kim"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Center for Brain Technology, Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Seok Chung"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Convergence Dementia Research Center, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)",
        "Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)"
      ],
      "name": "Inhee Mook-Jung"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Pathological tau propagation from the brain to the colon via the vagal efferent pathway in Alzheimer’s disease",
  "uid": "eb20f176-933b-50f2-ac21-be50ed679017"
}