Episode 16: Alzheimer's and the amyloid hypothesis

What causes Alzheimer’s? The main theory is that it’s due to a build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain. But some scientists think that’s hopelessly wrong, and that a hidebound belief in the amyloid hypothesis is stopping us from finding a cure.

In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart talk about the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s, ask whether all the hype over the three recent Alzheimer’s drugs (“a momentous breakthrough!”) is justified, and look at some ways we could do better research on dementia.

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Show notes

* The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) - the test Stuart quotes at the start

* NHS list of Alzheimer’s symptoms

* List and discussion of possible theories for the cause of Alzheimer’s

* Chris Hemsworth interview about finding out he’s at high genetic risk of Alzheimer’s

* Potential clues about the origin of Alzheimer’s from Down Syndrome

* Sharon Begley’s STAT article on “how an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure for decades”

* Science investigation of potential fraud in the original Aβ*56 study

* Explanation of why it’s bad, but not devastating for the amyloid hypothesis

* Independent panel urges the FDA not to approve Aducanumab - but they do so anyway

* Derek Lowe’s highly sceptical discussion of the “disgraceful” approval

* Stuart’s sceptical article in the i on Lecanemab (link to the trial itself)

* BBC article on the “momentous breakthrough”

* “16 cautionary notes” on Lecanemab

* Stuart’s sceptical article in the i on Donanemab (link to the trial itself)

* And Stuart’s Twitter thread on “clinically meaningful” effects in Alzheimer’s

* BBC More or Less episode discussing the problems with measuring the effect of an Alzheimer’s drug

* How do the new Alzheimer’s drugs work in theory? One potential explanation

* Paper by Elliot Tucker-Drob on how we measure dementia and how we forget about individual differences while doing so

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.

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