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2024-11-11

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Alzheimer’s Breakthrough: Researchers Discover Novel Way To Potentially Halt Disease Progression (scitechdaily.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/science

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This study focuses on the manipulation of the plexin-B1 protein to enhance the brain’s ability to clear amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease, opening avenues for future therapeutic strategies to potentially halt the progression of the disease

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01664-w

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm surprised. As I understand it, the Alzheimer's field is starting to recognize that the plaques are likely a result of, rather than a cause of, the disease. And that the cause may be more related to a, potentially microglia related, inflammatory problem in the CNS

[–] just_another_person 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

There are sort of two paths in the research. Some are following the Amyloid Plaque route still. There was a bit of kerfuffle with some of the evidence in other studies which was the basis of this route: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease

Once you're too far down one path of research, you pretty much can't stop, or you risk your entire career, evidence be damned.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Thanks, that was a good read. It is terrible that some researchers end up committing such scientific fraud. Although I am inclined to blame the involved researchers themselves, ultimately, I believe that inflexible (and insufficient) funding is the real culprit

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I suspect both methods will be necessary. Step A - clean up amyloid. Step B stop excess amyloid production.