Untangling Alzheimer's

Although it has been known for some time that beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are both involved in Alzheimer's disease etiology, the relationship between these pathological markers has been unclear. Now a link between the two has been suggested by two separate groups of researchers, showing that beta-amyloid plaques accelerated the formation of tangles in mice.

The research published in Science last week offers a new mouse model for studying the disease, and suggests that therapeutic intervention should go after both tau and beta-amyloid...