New Alzheimer’s Experimental Drug Shows Promising Change

An experimental drug can reduce the damaging changes in tau proteins known to damage the neurons in brains with Alzheimer’s disease, researches from the Yale School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University report.

Much of the focus on Alzheimer’s research has been focused on preventing the buildup of amyloid plaques that form amyloid beta in the brain known to be a toxic, sticky protein fragment.

But this new study focuses on a slow, harmful change in a molecule called tau which leads to neuronal degeneration. This is a key event in which phosphate groups are added to the tau peptide, and is a key early event that triggers neurological damage, researchers have found.

The researchers focused on investigating ways to reduce tau phosphorylation early in the progession of the disease, before any damage is done to the neurons.

The goal now is to develop a compound that can be used to humans, as previously tested in monkeys, which researchers believe has great potential.