HOUSTON: Alzheimer’s disease could be prevented or cured by a new drug which reboots the immune system to stop devastating memory loss, scientists believe.
A new study has shown for the first time that immune cells play a crucial role in the formation of sticky plaques which clump between brain cells, preventing them from functioning correctly.
Usually the body protects the brain from these plaques. However scientists have found that in Alzheimer’s disease the immune cells in the brain seem to go haywire, producing a molecule which actually reduces the immune response and consumes an important brain nutrient.
A drug which blocks that molecule is already being tested in cancer patients, and researchers discovered that it stops the formation of plaques. It raises the prospect that statin-like drugs could be given to the middle-aged to ward off dementia…