Doubling Down on the Failure of Amyloid- β Clearance

After decades of work, researchers have finally achieved therapies that can effectively clear amyloid-β aggregates from the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately clinical trials have shown no robust benefit to patients as a result. As illustrated by today's open access paper, a sizable contingent in the research community feel that the evidence for amyloid-β aggregation to be the root of the condition remains convincing. Failure means, in their eyes, that the challenge is more difficult than hoped, and the answer should be an increased effort to run longer clinical trials, find more and better anti-amyloid therapies, and in general an increased investment in and focus on clearance of amyloid-β. Meanwhile, many other groups have their own viewpoints, some of which are gathering a sizable body of evidence in support of different interpretations of the core amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease. No-one disputes that amyoid-β aggregation is associated with the condition and harmful in animal models, but why it is there, which form of amyloid-β or which of the surrounding biochemistry should be the target, or whether amyloid-β is irrelevant to later stages of the condition, and whether amyloid-β is a side-effect of other, more important pathological mechanisms, such as sustained inflammation of brain tissue or persistent viral infection - these are all ongoing debates that have given rise to significant research programs, clinical tri...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs