Researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, together with their colleagues at the Barcelona Beta Research Centre in Spain, the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the University of Paris, have found new forms of tau protein that become abnormal in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease before cognitive problems develop. The scientists developed new tools to detect these subtle changes and confirmed their results in human samples.
At a time when the incidence and social costs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in particular continue to rise, this breakthrough is very timely as it could enable the detection of the disease much earlier than current approaches. The findings are also important for the testing of therapies against this devastating disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by two pathological changes in brain tissue. One is a protein…
