The pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer's disease is becoming an increasingly competitive and contentious quest with recent years witnessing several important controversies.
, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer's, may have been based on fabricated data., an antibody-targeting beta-amyloid, as a treatment for Alzheimer's, even though the data supporting its use were incomplete and contradictory.
Regrettably, this dedication to studying the abnormal protein clumps has not translated into a useful drug or therapy. The need for a new"out-of-the-clump" way of thinking about Alzheimer's is emerging as a top priority in brain science. The exact same processes are present in the brain. When there is head trauma, the brain's immune system kicks into gear to help repair. When bacteria are present in the brain, the immune system is there to fight back.We believe that beta-amyloid is not an abnormally produced protein, but rather is a normally occurring molecule that is part of the brain's immune system. It is supposed to be there.
This leads to a chronic, progressive loss of brain cell function, which ultimately culminates in dementia – all because our body's immune system cannot differentiate between bacteria and brain cells.