Post #4854

One of Our Biggest Hopes For Alzheimer's Treatment Doesn't Seem to Work For decades, scientists have targeted the sticky protein clumps that amass in Alzheimer's brains as a potential way of treating the disease, but they may have been off the mark. A new study shows that clearing away the amyloid-beta clumps doesn't appear to repair key brain functions. In particular, it doesn't restore the brain's mechanisms for clearing out waste, known as the glymphatic system. This system is known to be impaired in people with Alzheimer's, and would usually help with getting rid of excess amyloid-beta plaques, via waves of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The study comes from researchers at the Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan, who tested the new Alzheimer's drug lecanemab on 13 people with the disease. Magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) scans were used to look at the effects on the brain. "Even when amyloid-beta is reduced by lecanemab, impairment of the glymphatic system may not recover within the short-term," says medical researcher Tatsushi Oura, of Osaka Metropolitan University. Source:ScienceAlert @EverythingScience