The “Amyloid Hypothesis” posits that increases of amyloid in the brain trigger a series of events that leads to the pathology and development of Alzheimer’s disease. A different theory has been advanced to describe how Alzheimer’s disease progresses. This discovery found evidence that amyloid plaques may actually form on the interior of cells, not the exterior, as had been the belief. The new model may help to explain why plaques cause cell death and it may bring us closer to identifying exactly where and how Alzheimer’s disease causes damage to the brain.

Charles Glabe, Ph.D., University of California Irvine