Future Alzheimer’s Treatments Aim To Do More Than Clear Plaques From the Brain (NPR)

Future Alzheimer’s Treatments Aim To Do More Than Clear Plaques From the Brain

Immune cells, toxic protein tangles and brain waves are among the targets of future Alzheimer’s treatments, scientists say.

These approaches are noteworthy because they do not directly attack the sticky amyloid plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

The plaques have been the focus of most Alzheimer’s drug development in the past 20 years. And the drug Aduhelm was given conditional approval by the Food and Drug Administration in June 2021, based primarily on the medication’s ability to remove amyloid from the brain.

But many researchers believe amyloid drugs alone can’t stop Alzheimer’s.

“The field has been moving beyond amyloid for many years now,” says Malú Gámez Tansey, co-director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida.

Tansey and a number of other researchers offered a wide range of alternative strategies at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Denver, July 2021.

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