Despite the fact that decades of work on the cause of Alzheimer’s disease has been predicated on amyloid plaque buildup in the brain, it might be that the plaques are part of the body’s immune system and that Alzheimer’s is probably an autoimmune disease.
In experiments, amyloid beta was shown to be effective against the herpes simplex virus, as well as being able to kill and break down a variety of bacteria, including E. coli, S. aureus, S. marcescens, and K. pneumonia. The researchers believe that these experimental results support the view that Alzheimer’s is an autoimmune disease.
So for all of this time drugs were those designed to destroy the amyloid plaques.
Over a dozen anti-amyloid drugs have failed in human trials; most recently, on Monday, Roche announced that two trials of its drug gantenerumab did not slow clinical decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s. One possibility could be that amyloid plays only a small role in most cases of Alzheimer’s disease.
Research dollars were not given to those thinking outside the box.
“In the past, all the funding eggs have been in the amyloid basket. We don’t want that to happen again,”
Glad to see that research is actually moving in a direction that might make a difference.
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