There is both risk and reward in focusing Alzheimer’s disease research on inhibiting amyloid production, according to a new article in Future Science OA. The article reviews the significant body of research proposing that the accumulation of beta amyloid in the brain is the Alzheimer’s disease trigger that must be inhibited.
Future Science OA is an online, open access, peer-reviewed title from Future Science Group. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in the elderly, affecting more than 36 million people worldwide, and no drugs have yet been proven to halt the progression of this degenerative disease.
Significant research has focused on a theory known as the Amyloid Hypothesis, which suggests that the accumulation of a small protein fragment called beta amyloid or Aβ within brain tissue is the event which triggers Alzheimer’s disease. Aβ is a derivative of the longer Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP).
