Harnessing the Immune System to Fight off Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer's disease is caused by the formation of "amyloid plaques" in brain cells. According to this article in BBC News, researchers from Yale University engineered to block a part of the immune system in mice to fight off the harmful amyloid plaques that cause Alzheimer’s.

Researchers blocked immune cells called macrophages, whose normal function is to fight off cell debris and harmful bacteria, and by doing this the immune cells turned their attention to the plaques. The mice’s memories were tested afterwards using mazes, and significant improvements were found. 90% of the plaque material had been removed from the brains of the mice.

More research will be done in the future to see if a drug in humans can reproduce this same effect.