amyloid beta plaques tagged posts

Antibodies against APOE (red) bind to amyloid plaques (blue) in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have found that the antibody can sweep away the damaging plaques, at least in mice, which could lead to a therapy for the devastating disease. Credit: Monica Xiong

Potential therapy removes APOE and plaques from brain. Amyloid beta plaques are a characteristic sign of Alzheimer’s disease. But nestled within the plaques are small amounts of another Alzheimer’s protein: APOE. Now, researchers have shown that an antibody not only targets APOE for removal but sweeps away plaques in mice. The findings could lead to a way to halt the brain damage triggered by amyloid plaques while the disease is still in its early stages, perhaps before symptoms appear...

Amyloid plaque reduction with aducanumab: example amyloid PET images at baseline and week 54. Axial slice shows anatomical regions in posterior brain putatively related to Alzheimer’s disease pathology

The researchers furthermore demonstrated in an early stage clinical study that, after 1 year of treatment with Aducanumab, cognitive decline could be significantly slowed in antibody-treated patients as opposed to the placebo group. Although the causes of Alzheimer’s disease are still unknown, it is clear that the disease commences with progressive amyloid deposition in the brains of affected persons between 10 to 15 years before the emergence of initial clinical symptoms such as memory loss...