University of Virginia neuroscientists have revealed how a toxic form of tau spreads through the brain as the disease progresses, what provokes its accumulation and how it harms nerve cells called neurons. Scientists may be able to leverage these findings to develop new Alzheimer’s treatments that prevent or delay symptom onset, or slow disease progression once symptoms develop.

 

UVA’s new research also advances efforts to develop blood tests to detect Alzheimer’s at its earliest stages, when it is, in principle, most amenable to treatment. The researchers found that antibodies used in blood tests for measuring this toxic, chemically modified form of tau, tau_pT217, can easily be fooled into detecting other proteins, which compromises test accuracy. Fortunately, they also showed how this problem can be avoided. 

Read more: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12892