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AI Summary. A man carrying a rare mutation had brain scans showing amyloid plaques and tau protein at levels resembling severe dementia, yet one small region coordinating memory and navigation, the entorhinal cortex, had low tau levels. The authors argue this challenges the theory that Alzheimer's is primarily driven by amyloid plaques.

Sara Reardon Nature
Date Posted:

Researchers have found a mutation that protected a man with early stage Alzheimers from dementia until he was 67. @Nature

Researchers have found a mutation that protected a man with early stage Alzheimers from dementia until he was 67. @Nature

Is Alzheimer's primarily driven by amyloid plaques?

Core argument: Brain scans of a man carrying a rare Alzheimer's mutation showed high levels of amyloid plaques and tau, resembling the brain of a person with severe dementia, says study co-author Joseph Arboleda, an ophthalmologist at Harvard Medical School.

When the researchers scanned his brain, they found high levels of the sticky protein complexes known as amyloid plaques, which are thought to kill neurons and cause dementia, as well as a protein called tau that accumulates as the disease progresses. The brain looked like that of a person with severe dementia, says study co-author Joseph Arboleda, an ophthalmologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. But one small brain area called the entorhinal cortex, which coordinates skills such as memory and navigation, had low levels of tau.  The study challenges the theory that Alzheimer’s disease is primarily driven by amyloid plaques, which are the targets of several drugs recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The drugs effectively remove amyloid from the brain, but lead to only a moderate improvement in rates of cognitive decline.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Brain scans of a man carrying a rare Alzheimer's mutation showed high levels of amyloid plaques and tau, resembling the brain of a person with severe dementia, says study co-author Joseph Arboleda, an ophthalmologist at Harvard Medical School.
  2. The man's entorhinal cortex, a small brain area that coordinates skills such as memory and navigation, had low levels of tau.
  3. The study challenges the theory that Alzheimer's is primarily driven by amyloid plaques, the target of several drugs recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration that remove amyloid but lead to only moderate improvement in rates of cognitive decline.
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