THE AMYLOID QUESTION

Abstract

RESEARCHERS ARE ON the verge of testing a fundamental hypothesis about how Alzheimer’s disease evolves. Amyloid-β, the peptide responsible for the ugly plaques coating the brains of victims of the disease, has long been considered the main culprit in triggering neuron death and subsequent mental decline. After years of complex drug discovery efforts, industry is putting that hypothesis to the test with a series of late-stage clinical trials for small molecules and antibodies that block amyloid-β. If the trials are successful—and the amyloid hypothesis is proven true—doctors will have a slew of new drugs that could slow the progression of the disease. If the trials fail, scientists will be forced back to the drawing board to develop new hypotheses and drug targets. The worry among some experts is that the development of amyloid-β-targeting compounds by Pfizer, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, and others began long before the underlying biology of the ...