( g tangles of threads made up of chains ...)A new century of Alzheimer's disease research,Health

g tangles of threads made up of chains of tiny “tau” proteins are being assembled inside billions of nerve cells (neurons). Outside the neurons, other amyloid-beta (AB) proteins are fusing together into sticky clumps (plaque) -- akin to the substance that clogs heart arteries. Together, these tangles and plaques disrupt the normal functioning of the nerve cells, destroying the pathways along which packets of chemical “information” move. Memories cannot be stored or retrieved, and, eventually, the brain cannot control the body. Each year about 4.6 million more people develop Alzheimer’s worldwide, and that number is escalating rapidly. As many as 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, according to the National Institute on Aging, and experts predict that by 2050 that total will rise to approximately 15 million people.

To find out what causes Alzheimer’s -- plaques, tangles or both -- researchers first began studying people who developed the disease early, before age 65. A breakthrough came when the gene that produced the AB fragments (amyloid-beta precursor protein, or APP) was found on chromosome 21. This made sense, because patients with Down syndrome, all of whom inherit an extra chromosome 21, typically develop early brain plaques and tangles.

Then scientists linked mutations in two other genes to early-onset Alzheimer’s, and these two genes were involved in the production of AB. In 1995, Dr. Younkin and Harvard researcher Dennis Selkoe, M.D., independently found that all three of these mutations increase the production of either AB in general, or a particular type of AB that is made up of 42 amino acids -- just slightly longer than the typical 40 amino acid AB fragment.

Dr. Younkin’s finding was pivotal, made just as the scientist moved his laboratory from Case Western Reserve to Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville. An avalanche of confirmatory studies was soon published, and the Alzheimer’s research world quickly tur
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