An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding why Alzheimer’s disease progresses so rapidly in some people that they die within three years. The researchers found a link between strains of misshapen and fast-replicating tau protein and accelerated cognitive decline — a critical result that illuminates the variations in Alzheimer’s disease and could help lead to more precise diagnoses and targeted therapies. Such work could lead to changes in Alzheimer’s care, possibly giving patients and families more accurate prognoses.

The researchers found a link between strains of misshapen and fast-replicating tau protein and accelerated cognitive decline — a critical result that illuminates the variations in Alzheimer’s disease and could help lead to more precise diagnoses and targeted therapies.

Such work could lead to changes in Alzheimer’s care, possibly giving patients and families more accurate prognoses.

«For the first time, we established the link between the behavior of tau protein in the test tube and the clinical duration of the disease in patients,» said Jiri Safar, a professor in the departments of pathology, neurology, and neurosciences at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. «What the research says in general is that Alzheimer’s is not a single disease. There is a spectrum, and different cases have distinct biological drivers of the progression — and they should be handled as separate diseases.»

Their findings appeared Jan. 5 in Science Translational Medicine.

«We have to understand the disease and then sort it out into the different subsets or categories,» Safar said, «and that’s effectively where we are now with Alzheimer’s disease.»

Safar’s co-authors include CWRU colleagues Alan Lerner, a professor of neurology, and Mark Cohen, a professor of pathology and neurology; David Westaway, a professor in the Department of Medicine at University of Alberta and director of its Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases; and Rohan de Silva, a professor of molecular neuroscience at University College London’s Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

Story Source:
Materials provided by Case Western Reserve University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.