Detangling Risk in Neurodegenerative Disease: Clues to
Alzheimer's and Beyond A Mayo research team is looking one of
the less-examined possible causes of Alzheimer’s disease and
reporting some interesting findings, which may impact a broader
range of neurodegenerative problems. The potential for
diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease earlier in life may seem like the
ultimate Catch-22. On one hand, why would anybody want to know
that they are destined to develop the illness when there is no
treatment to prevent its devastating memory loss? On the other
hand, if it is only assessed in patients whose symptoms suggest
their brain cells may be damaged beyond repair, how can any new
treatment gain traction? Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., chair of
neuroscience at Mayo Clinic in Florida, has a definite opinion
on the subject. Dr. Petrucelli has spent over a decade studying
the spaghetti-like tangles of protein that can form in the
brains of Alzheimer’s patients with the goal of finding new ways
to diagnose the disease and ident