New York, United States – 07/18/2022 (PR Distribution™) –

For an expanded version of this article, please click here.

The history of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has come a long and winding road, from the early days of investigation by Dr. Alois Alzheimer to the recent controversial approval of Aduhelm. Despite the low success rate of AD therapies, the scientific understanding of AD has advanced significantly, and researchers are applying this knowledge to ongoing investigations.

Realization that toxic oligomers are the cause

Research as early as the mid-1990s identified toxic oligomers as the source of neurotoxicity, although the results have been diluted by other work in the field that has implicated other forms of beta-amyloid. Many candidates were repeatedly tested with antibodies broadly targeting all types of beta-amyloid such as solanezumab, bapineuzumab, gantenerumab and others. However, efforts failed because the mechanism did not focus on toxic oligomers.

As more non-specific approaches were applied to amyloid-beta, researchers began to recognize the key roles that amyloid-beta oligomers play in toxicity and proliferation. It is not the monomers or plaques that damage neurons, but rather the small toxic oligomers that cause the damage that leads to AD.[i] This finding has allowed pioneers in the field to pursue therapies that specifically target these misfolded proteins to neutralize them and halt AD.

biomarkers

While biomarkers have historically been used to assess health, it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that laboratories, equipment, and collection techniques were sufficiently mature to measure the wide variety of biological parameters indicative of health and complex diseases. Biomarkers can be used for screening, diagnosis, monitoring, therapeutic interventions, and patient response in clinical trials. They also offer utility as prognostic indicators.

In 2018, the FDA began to…