Without its chaperones, the amyloid protein settles in the brain and eventually clusters into plaques.
In addition, results presented last year for our monoclonal antibody solanezumab support the amyloid hypothesis.
Increasingly, scientists believe that a protein called amyloid peptide is the culprit in Alzheimer's disease.
Cells are taken from a patient who already has a disease, like amyloid lateral sclerosis.
Amyloid plaques contribute to the formation of peroxynitrites but they are only part of the cause.
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Wyeth and Elan next turned their attention to amyloid antibodies that Elan had previously prepared.
If beta amyloid is the key to stopping Alzheimer's, dimebon shouldn't work at all.
But dimebon didn't decrease the amount of amyloid produced by mouse brain cells in a dish.
Beta amyloid is a protein fragment that collects in clumps inside the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
Eli Lilly ( LLY - news - people ) also have amyloid-blocking programs.
This follows murky mid-stage results from another type of amyloid blocking drug from Pfizer and Elan.
Another possibility is that researchers need to test the amyloid drug on earlier stage patients.
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But it could also be the opposite: that the wound-sealing amyloid they are producing is defective.
The conventional interpretation is that is because the damaged genes produce too much amyloid.
"The evidence for amyloid is still pretty impressive, " adds Ronald Petersen of the Mayo Clinic.
In June, Myriad Genetics said its Flurizan anti-amyloid drug was totally ineffective in a final-stage trial.
If that is the case, then anti amyloid drugs will either fail or be incomplete.
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Neurologists fiercely debate whether the amyloid clumps are the cause of the disease--or merely a consequence.
Protective effect of Toki-shakuyaku-san on amyloid beta25-35-induced neuronal damage in cultured rat cortical neurons.
But by focusing so heavily on amyloid, the drug industry is taking a big risk.
Companies have seen a number of failures in amyloid-targeting drugs, including Myriad Genetics Inc.
One large area of research is in plaques of beta amyloid which form on the brain.
Certain compounds called methoxyphenols inhibit both the amyloid plaque and non-amyloid plaque routes to peroxynitrite formation.
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Researchers are still trying to prove the beta-amyloid theory as the cause of AD.
Amyloid believers think that the drugs just need to be tested earlier in the process.
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In recent years scientists at Merck and elsewhere have identified enzymes involved in producing amyloid peptide.
In mice it slashed brain amyloid levels by 50%, and it boosted their ability to navigate mazes.
If all drug companies target amyloid and the theory is wrong, all the drugs will fail.
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Elan's other approach would be to inject patients with antibodies for beta amyloid made outside the body.
The drugs aim to remove aberrant protein clumps called amyloid plaques from the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
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