Scientists have identified a new type of Alzheimer’s disease, a finding they believe will lead them to more effectively study and treat the brain malady.
Alzheimer’s disease has typically been diagnosed by the presence of two findings: amyloid plaques and structures called tau tangles in the brain.
But doctors have been puzzled by patients showing symptoms indistinguishable from Alzheimer’s disease with the tau tangles but no amyloid plaques.
Researchers from the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City now suggest that there is a form of Alzheimer’s disease called primary age-related tauopathy (PART), which can occur
in the absence of any amyloid in the brain.
PART is most severe in patients of advanced age but is generally mild in those who are younger. In Alzheimer's disease tau tangles spread throughout the brain. However, in PART patients, the tangles are confined to structures related to memory, according to the study in the journal Acta Neuoropathologica.
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