New Strategy to Prevent Alzheimer's disease

Scientists are looking into treatments for Alzheimer's in the early stages of the disease, verses traditional approaches of treating advanced stages as reported in Science Daily article.

"Taking a pill that prevents the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain might someday help prevent or delay Alzheimer's disease, according to scientists at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study, published in Cell Press journal Neuron, took a three-pronged approach to help subdue early events that occur in the brain long before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are evident. The scientists were able to prevent those early events and the subsequent development of brain pathology in experimental animal models in the lab.

"Common diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and dementia are caused in part by abnormal accumulation of certain proteins in the brain," said senior author Dr. Huda Zoghbi, professor of molecular and human genetics and of pediatrics -- neurology and developmental neuroscience at Baylor and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital. "Some proteins become toxic when they accumulate; they make the brain vulnerable to degeneration. Tau is one of those proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease and dementia."

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