Studying brains somehow spared by Alzheimer's

There’s a puzzling subset of folks who show the physical signs of Alzheimer’s disease — brains clogged with amyloid plaques and tau tangles — yet experience no memory loss or cognitive decline. The presence of those sticky protein clumps has been considered by Alzheimer’s orthodoxy to be a hallmark of the neurodegenerative disease, STAT’s Sharon Begley writes, so why are some plaque-ridden brains spared?

Researchers are examining this phenomenon, with the hope of developing an Alzheimer’s drug that might mimic the actions of these resilient brains.

“Resilience is now in the mainstream of Alzheimer’s drug discovery, and a high priority,” a neuroscience director at the National Institute on Aging told STAT.