© StockphotoResearch in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease points to a possible new treatment that actually removes amyloid plaques from patients' brains.
A breakthrough discovery by scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, may lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer's Disease that actually removes amyloid plaques - considered a hallmark of the disease - from patients' brains.
This discovery, published online in
The FASEB Journal, is based on the unexpected finding that when the brain's immune cells (microglia) are activated by the interleukin-6 protein (IL-6), they actually remove plaques instead of causing them or making them worse. The research was performed in a model of Alzheimer's disease established in mice.