Why Is There Still No Cure for Alzheimer’s?

Alzheimer’s is perhaps the most complex and One of the most difficult diseases to solve appears as one.

Treatment of this complex disease has been done for years. numerous studies And why hasn’t it been found yet despite attempts?

Over the last 30 years, the majority of Alzheimer’s research and efforts to find a cure have been based on the amyloid hypothesis.

However, research based on this hypothesis was conducted decades later. Drug trials have been largely unsuccessful. Even drugs that reduce amyloid levels in the brain have failed to improve quality of life for Alzheimer’s patients.

Lecanemab, a new Alzheimer’s drug approved by the FDA in early 2024, will be used in trial participants for causing the deaths of several safety has been questioned.

Safety issues aside, lecanemab is a He was far from cured. It did not halt disease progression and only slightly reduced cognitive decline.

Are we at a scientific impasse?

The disappointing results have led many researchers to question whether the amyloid hypothesis should be reconsidered. Science can sometimes get into such impasses because Science is a slow, cumulative process and is often built upon years of work.

Momentum on Alzheimer’s is largely based on the amyloid hypothesis. Other processes e.g. inflammation, previous infections or autoimmune diseases, little attention has been paid to their role in the course of the disease.

However, it does not make sense to abandon the amyloid hypothesis altogether.

New techniques make it possible to diagnose Alzheimer’s before death. imaging tests such as MRI, can rule out other causes of memory loss. Special PET scans can detect beta-amyloid plaques and tau proteins.

Instead of destroying plaques and tangles, researchers now identify the ones that form them. They are investigating biological pathways. Director of the Columbia University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Dr. According to Scott Small, because we don’t fully understand what’s actually wrong with Alzheimer’s, it becomes difficult to fix it.

Some researchers think Alzheimer’s may be a metabolic disorder. Insulin resistance, inflammation and inflammation in the brain may cause oxidative stress. It can eventually cause amyloid plaques and Alzheimer’s.

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