Commentary on Recent Evidence for Cognitive Decline to Precede Amyloid Aggregation in Alzheimer ' s Disease

I can't say that I think the data presented in the research noted here merits quite the degree of the attention that it has been given in the popular science press. It is interesting, but not compelling if its role is to be evidence for a lack of correlation between amyloid-β and cognitive decline. When thinking about the early stages of loss of cognitive function, in which changes are small and subtle, one might have to consider other factors such as vascular dysfunction or other neurodegenerative conditions with quite different mechanisms that could produce these effects. The interplay and relative importance of the field of mechanisms at this stage of aging is far from clear. Nonetheless, the present mood of the scientific community and its onlookers is that of a growing revolt against the amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease, so research that ties into that mood receives attention.

There has been a longstanding belief among neuroscientists, backed by scientific evidence, that beta-amyloid, a protein that can clump together and form sticky plaques in the brain, is the first sign of Alzheimer's disease. The amyloid hypothesis, as it is often referred to, suggests an archetypal cascade in which β-amyloid in the brain initiates the acceleration of tau pathology, which in turn drives neurodegeneration and associated cognitive symptoms. However, now a new study is challenging the current hypothesis, with data suggesting that subtle thinking and memory di...

Source: Fight Aging! - January 16, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs