Thread by @bowtiedkobra

Did you know about the strong correlation between concussions and developing CTE/Alzheimer's?

I'll teach you about all that and more here

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What is a Tau protein?

Simply put, they are proteins that are found in neurons and provide stability and keeps the internal skeleton of neurons together

A shortage of these inside the neurons decreases brain function

Accumulation of Tau proteins outside the cell promotes brain cell damage death

And how might these Tau proteins end up outside the neuron?

Brain injury such as a concussion

Learn more here

When there is brain trauma, Tau proteins detach from the cell and float freely (quite bad)

In addition to this, there is diffuse axonal injury (DAI)

When these Tau float freely, they connect with other Tau proteins and form neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs lol)

These tangles slow the ability to think

What are the biological markers of Alzheimer's?

DAIs and NFTs

A single traumatic brain injury (TBI) can induce progressive Tau pathology for years

The correlation of TBI and CTE/Alzheimer's can be drawn given because all the conditions share nearly identical biological markers

CTE and Alzheimer's are triggered by the following:

☑️Chronic neuroinflammation
☑️Tau accumulation
☑️Neurodeneration

In fact, Tau accumulation is so prevalent in CTE, that they diagnose CTE post-mortem via blood analysis showing a surplus of Tau

It is no coincidence that a TBI(concussion) triggers all of the events mentioned above

In fact, CTE is 8% more prevalent in someone that has sustained a TBI than those without (22% risk vs 14% risk)

So now we understand the biological processes that occur with a concussion as well as CTE/Alzheimer's

Again this was a gross oversimplification of what goes on in the neurons

That's it.

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