Scientist make Alzheimer breakthrough

Scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) have made a significant discovery about the causes of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Stuart Feinstein, professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute and senior author of the study, published by The Journal of Biological Chemistry, has disproved a long held belief about the causes of the disease.

Dementia occurs when the brain cells or neurons needed for cognitive skills are not working properly, thought to have been caused by Amyloid beta making tau overly phosphorylated.

Tau is important to neurons as it stabilises microtubules, essential for the cytoskeleton which aids many aspects of neuronal cell structure and function.

However, far from making tau phosphorylated and causing it not to work correctly, Amyloid beta actually destroys the tau completely within 24 hours.

"We know from cancer drugs that if you treat cells with drugs that disrupt the cytoskeleton, the cells die," Mr Feinstein said.

"In my mind, the same thing could be happening here."