AnaSpec Provides the Industry with a Large Collection of Anti-Tau Antibodies

The major pathological hallmarks in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are β-sheet aggregates of β-amyloid peptides in senile plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau protein in neurofibrillary tangles (NFT).1-2 AnaSpec, a provider of one of the world’s largest collections of β-amyloid peptides, also provides the industry’s largest collection of anti-Tau antibodies - 23 phosphospecific and 14 non-phosphospecific Tau antibodies.

The Tau rabbit polyclonal antibodies, raised against Tau peptides, are supplied as epitope-affinity purified rabbit IgG at 25 or 50 μg sizes at 0.2 mg/ml of 1x PBS solution. They have been validated in dot blots and IHC. Species reactivity includes human, mouse and rat. Some antibodies have also shown reactivity with bovine, chicken and zebrafish. AnaSpec gratefully acknowledges Dr. Claudia Schwab for performing the Anti-Tau antibodies IHCs (in Dr. Patrick McGeer’s lab, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada).

Tau is a collection of microtubule-associated proteins that is involved in microtubule assembly and stabilization.3 In adult human brain, 6 isoforms, ranging between 352 and 441 amino acids in length, are produced as a result of alternative RNA splicing.4-5 The expression of Tau isoforms is developmentally regulated, as only the smallest Tau polypeptide is expressed in the fetal brain. Hyperphosphorylated Tau is the major component of the paired helical filament of Alzheimer’s disease. Anti-phospho-Tau antibodies are used to identify specific amino acids that are phosphorylated in Tau from normal brains and Alzheimer’s disease brains. The Tau proteins, especially in developing brains and in Alzheimer brains, are phosphorylated in vivo at many different sites such as Thr181, Ser198, Ser199, Ser202, Thr205, Thr212, Ser214, Thr217, Thr231, Ser235, Ser262, Ser356, Ser396, Ser400, Ser404 and Ser413.6-7

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