Case of mistaken identity: Study questions role of A-beta molecules in Alzheimer's disease pathology
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 04:20
in Health & Medicine
Increasingly, researchers are suggesting that amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles may be relatively late manifestations in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Identifying earlier events in the development of AD remains a challenge. The laboratory of Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was the first, in 1993, to demonstrate unequivocally the presence of A-beta peptides -- a hallmark of AD -- inside neurons. But their role in Alzheimer's disease remained unclear.