Resumen de Downsized Target.
This article discusses research into curing Alzheimers. Scientists have long suspected that the protein clumps and tangles identified by Alois Alzheimer in 1907 somehow cause the disease that bears his name, probably by killing neurons. The search has begun for an antibody that would destroy these tiny proteins--or ADDLs--thereby preventing the onset of Alzheimer disease and possibly even reversing the early symptoms. In 1994 Caleb E. Finch, a neurogerontologist at the University of Southern California, attempted to create amyloid plaque by mixing a solution of amyloid precursor protein fragments with clusterin, a substance produced at higher levels in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. And last summer Klein, Krafft, Finch and their colleagues found huge quantities of ADDLs in postmortem brains from people with Alzheimer's, whereas brains from normal patients were virtually free of ADDLs. That money, plus funding from other investors, will enable Acumen to devise three other ADDL-based strategies for preventing Alzheimer's, as well as diagnostic tests that would reveal early signs of the disease.
