Folding Forum

Alzheimer's seems as much a mystery as ever.

"All along, a small band of skeptics have worried that the amyloid theory is misguided. They argue that amyloid may be a mere consequence of the disease. Blocking it may do little or nothing, or even accelerate dementia. Now their worst fears have come true: Eli Lilly halted development of an Alzheimer’s drug because it made the disease worse in tests on 2600 patients. "

http://blogs.forbes.com/robertlangreth/ ... gelighttop

Obviously more research is needed. Real research always leads down some blind alleys and knowing it's a blind alley is one more fact that will probably be useful.

Even if mis-folded amyloid is a symptom rather than the cause, it still means that FAH needs to figure out why the protein mis-folded in the first place. Maybe there's another protein that misguides the folding process, and if so, it's probably an important marker of the disease. Knowing that would move us one step closer to understanding what's really going on.

An infection could actually result in the start of Alzheimer's disease as reported by a new study posted in Molecular Psychiatry. As a virus, Alzheimer's might also be contagious. In tests with rats, Alzheimer's has exhibited these characteristics. As a virus, Alzheimer's disease may be contagious, study suggests. In trials with rats, Alzheimer's has exhibited these characteristics.

Whether the amyloid is a cause or a mere consequence of the disease, it's a marker of the disease. Research continues on many fronts and nobody believes that there's a single step toward the cure that will be the unique final step.

I see that the most recent FAH paper mentioned in on the Results page explores intermediate steps in the formation of this marker which can't really be explored with current experimental methods. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142112/. Maybe some of you biochemical experts can explain it to me in simpler words so I can appreciate more of the details.