Reimagining Alzheimer’s (Part 1)
(Posted on Friday, September 16, 2022)
Alzheimer’s disease affects over 5 million individuals in the United States and has proven to be an enigma in the scientific world. Historically, scientists have believed that Alzheimer’s disease was solely caused by two dysfunctional proteins in the brain called ß-amyloid and tau. Now, recent discoveries have thrown into question this fundamental assumption about Alzheimer’s disease and its origins.
For decades, scientists have approached Alzheimer’s research by searching for ways to prevent the unusual activity of amyloid-beta and tau. While several medications and antibody treatments have been developed to intercept the activity of these proteins, many of them are unsuccessful and do not prevent the major cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Due to this, there are serious suspicions in the scientific world that there may be more to the story of Alzheimer’s than ß-amyloid and tau. In this short series, we will introduce some of the latest interesting work surrounding Alzheimer’s disease, its origins, pathology, and potential avenues for treatment. In the first installment of the series, we offer a brief overview of Alzheimer’s disease in general.