Plaques Can Result in Tangles According to Newest Alzheimer Therapy

The hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease are as follows: Tau protein neurofibrillary tangles inside brain cells and accumulated amyloid protein plaques from outside the brain cells. However, the newest Alzheimer treatment suggests that it's the plaques that can lead to the tangles, and dealing with the plaques can serve as a means to hit two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Before the tangles appear, the plaques appear first, which gives the impression that one causes the other. However, correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation, and scientists believe that finding the actual link between the two can serve as a way to improve treatment options.

The devastating, brain-wasting disease has recently gotten a new study on the "Human Molecular Genetics" magazine that has uncovered a clue that connects tangles and plaques together in Alzheimer's. According to an assistant research scientist (Guilian Xu), a professor of neuroscience (David R. Borchelt), and their colleagues at the University of Florida's College of Medicine, amyloid plaques might be tau tangle triggers, which they demonstrated via a mouse model.

Amyloid plaques, they say, aren't causative factors for Alzheimer's disease, although both the plaque and the tangles are characteristic of the condition. It's only when the tangles happen that the graver symptoms of Alzheimer's truly come about. Borchelt feels that understanding how plaques lead to tangles can significantly improve present Alzheimer therapy.