Anti-herpetic tau preserves neurons via the cGAS-STING-TBK1 pathway in Alzheimer’s disease
Hyde et al. found elevated HSV-1 protein expression in Alzheimer’s disease, with phosphorylated tau strongly colocalizing with HSV-1 proteins. They demonstrated that tau phosphorylation responds to HSV-1 via the innate immune cGAS-STING pathway, reducing HSV-1 protein expression and increasing neuronal viability, highlighting a role for tau phosphorylation in innate immunity.