New Scientist published an article on how recent breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research are questioning longstanding explanations of the disease. The article, which notes the work of two Cure Alzheimer’s Fund researchers, emphasizes an issue we have been saying for years: we need to better understand the cause, not just attack the disease symptoms.

“Thanks to a new imaging techniques, the plaques [the most common indicator of Alzheimer’s] can now be seen in the brains of living people. Not only could this allow early diagnosis, it is helping overturn the long-standing orthodoxy over the causes of Alzheimer’s, and paving the way for effective treatments.

The article notes discoveries by Sam Gandy, funded by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, proving a correlation between oligomers and cognitive problems in mice. Dr. Rudy Tanzi, a member of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Consoritum supports Dr. Gandy’s findings.

The study is coup de grace, says Rudolph Tanzi, an Alzheimer’s researcher at Harvest Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It finally shows exactly what all the previous data were pointing to but never directly showed – we can have a brain with no plaques but still have problems.”

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