HOLES are appearing in the popular idea that insoluble lumps of protein
trigger Alzheimer’s disease. A study of great apes shows that while they do
develop plaques they never get the brain damage associated with dementia.
According to one theory, Alzheimer’s starts when plaques of amyloid protein
accumulate on nerve cells in the brain. These in turn trigger a build-up of
thread-like protein called “tangles” that eventually kill the cells. Patients
can lose up to 60 per cent of the neurons in the entorhinal cortex, a
specialised part of the brain that deals with memory. People who age normally
also…
