Methods of inhibiting tau-protein kinase I activity, inhibiting neuronal cell death and treating alzheimer's disease and tau-protein kinase I

A preventive or therapeutic agent for Arizheimer's disease which comprises antisense oligonucleotide capable of hybridizing with mRNA or DNA of tau-protein kinase I.

A pharmaceutical composition for prevention or therapy of Arzheimer's disease, which comprises a substance exhibiting an inhibitory action of tau-protein kinase and a pharmaceutically-acceptable carrier.

A pharmaceutical composition for preventinon or therapy of Arzheimer's disease, which comprises antisense oligonucleotide capable of hybridizing with mRNA or DNA of tau-protein kinase I.

A method for screening an agent useful for a prevention or therapy of Arzheimer's disease, characterized in that amyloid beta-protein, nerve cells and an agent presumed to be effective as a preventive or therapeutic agent for Arzheimer's disease are incubated and, when death of said nerve cells is inhibited, then said agent is judged to be effective as a preventive or therapeutic agent for Arzheimer's disease.

A method of inhibiting the neuronal cell death in the brain, characterized in that a substance exhibiting an inhibitory action to tau-protein kinase I is applied to the neurons in the brain.

A method of inhibiting the neuronal cell death in the brain, characterized in that an antisense oligonucleotide capable of hybridizing with mRNA or DNA of tau-protein kinase I is applied to the neurons in the brain.

Tau-Protein kinase I originated from human being, which is characterized by being represented by the amino acid sequence described in the Seq. ID No. 1 of the attached Sequence Listing or the partial sequence thereof.

Recombinant human-originated tau-protein kinase I.

Recombinant vector which is capable of expressing recombinant human-originated tau-protein kinase. I.