Artist’s impression of amyloid plaques in a brain with Alzheimer’s disease nobeastsofierce/Science Photo Library
It might one day be possible to gene-edit brain cells to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have discovered that altering a key gene in human nerve cells reduces the formation of a protein associated with the disease, though so far this has only been done in a dish.
Alzheimer’s is the main cause of dementia and the risk rises sharply as we grow old. Around 1 in 4 people aged over 90 have it.
The cause of Alzheimer’s still isn’t fully understood, but the leading hypothesis…
