A New Direction in Neurodegenerative Disease Treatment: Addressing Synaptic Resilience

Session details:

• Most research and approaches to Alzheimer’s treatment have focused on clearing out "trash" that has accumulated in the brain (plaques and tangles of misfolded amyloid and tau proteins)
• Exciting new research offers promise of a new approach focused on the brain’s synapses—the vital connections between brain cells that allow us to think, learn, and remember. We now know that when these connections break, the "wiring" of the brain fails, leading to cognitive decline
• But when synapses are preserved, even brains full of “trash” proteins (amyloid) have been seen to maintain normal memory and thinking skills. These people have a natural synaptic resilience—the biology of their brain connections is strong enough to resist the effects of disease