There was justifiable ink given last month in the media to the Lesné research misconduct. But it missed the mark. The real Alzheimer’s story is the “amyloid hypothesis” related to A?*56 is a small fraction of the research being done in an industry that is funding, backed by a lot of heart, to find a treatment, prevention or cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
This week, in Science, Drs. Dennis Selkoe and Jeffrey Cummings point out in a letter to the editor that a mere . . . “16 percent of Alzheimer’s drugs in development are predicated on the amyloid hypothesis” and none of them target A?*56 specifically, which is where the research misconduct occurred. Selkoe and Cummings are not alone. The National Institute on Aging also recently weighed in on the Lesné headlines. They note that there is a “progressive diversity” of research approaches happening in the field. It’s happening now and is based on decades of sound, reliable research. This is the takeaway. And it’s all being done to give the millions of people living with Alzheimer’s access to treatment, and hope.