I came across this article through the Cure Alzheimer’s fund website. While I am happy to spread the word on success in research on treating dementia, I also want to be sure people get the full story and not just the happy headlines 🙂
The jist of the research is that the pharmaceutical company Biogen, with headquarters in Cambridge, Massassachutes in USA, has designed a new drug based on processes that naturally occur in our bodies. This drug, Aducanumab, is a reproduction of our bodies own beta-amyloid autoantibodies, which are natural antibodies to amyloid beta, or Abeta, (amyloid beta creates the misfolded pepetides – which become the plaques – in Alzheimer’s disease).
The really amazing thing is that they find that the drug could potentially prevent the development of any Alzheimer’s symptoms if administered early enough in the disease process. The study showed that the amyloid plaques initiate Alzheimer’s disease by causing the neurofibrillary tangles to form and inflammation in the brain. So, the study suggests that if you can stop the amyloid beta from accumulating in the brain, you can slow down or stop Alzheimer’s disease.
