BACKGROUND: Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative disorders with 
accumulation of three-repeat (3R) or four-repeat (4R) Tau. While 3R tau is found 
in Pick's disease and Alzheimer's disease (AD), 4R tau is more abundant in 
corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, and AD. We have 
previously shown that Cerebrolysin™ (CBL), a neuropeptide mixture with 
neurotrophic effects, ameliorates the pathology in amyloid precursor protein 
transgenic (tg) mouse model of AD and 4R tau, however it is unclear if CBL 
ameliorates the deficits and neuropathology in the mouse model of Pick's disease 
over expressing 3R tau.
RESULTS: Mice expressing 3R tau (L266V and G272V mutations) under the mThy-1 
promoter were treated with CBL in two separate groups, the first was 3 months 
old (treated for 3 months, IP) and the second was 6 months old (treated for 
3 months, IP) at the start of the treatment. We found that although the levels 
of total 3R tau were unchanged, CBL reduced the levels of hyper-phosphorylated 
tau in both groups of mice. This was accompanied by reduced neurodegenerative 
pathology in the neocortex and hippocampus in both groups and by improvements in 
the behavioral deficits in the nest-building test and water maze in the 
3-6 month group.
CONCLUSION: Taken together these results support the notion that CBL may be 
beneficial in other taupathy models by reducing the levels of aberrantly 
phosphorylated tau.