Acute exposure of mouse and human hippocampal slices to tau oligomers reversibly impairs sharp-wave ripples

Sharp-wave ripple (SWR) oscillations are crucial for memory consolidation and deteriorate in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Tau oligomers are suggested to lead to synaptic and neuronal degeneration in AD, but their effects on SWRs are unknown. To study this, we prepared mouse and human hippocampal slices and bath-applied tau oligomer preparations after spontaneous SWR generation. In human slices, acute exposure to tau resulted in decreased ripple duration, whereas in mouse slices it was SWR rate, amplitude, and power that decreased, sparing duration. In a different set of experiments, mouse slices were pre-incubated directly in either tau-ACSF or control-ACSF right after slicing for 2.5–5.5 hours, resulting only in diminished SWR rate. These effects were specific to the presence of β-sheets, as a different tau preparation that lacked β-sheets failed to alter SWRs. This method is therefore suitable to study SWR alterations after short-term exposure to different tau and/or Aβ species, allows a higher throughput screening of possible therapeutics compared to in vivo animal experiments, and permits direct comparison of SWR alterations in mice and humans.