Scientists are studying some of the mechanisms behind alzheimer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists are unraveling some of the mechanisms behind the plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, offering new leads for drugs to treat the fatal brain-wasting disease.
A team at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston reported on Thursday in the journal Science that amyloid plaques agitate a type of brain cell called an astrocyte needed for normal brain function.
On Wednesday, a team at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, reported in the journal Nature that prions -- proteins known to wreak havoc on the brain in mad cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases -- appear to kick-start the toxic effects of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease.
The findings shed new light on the complex brain mechanisms behind Alzheimer's, which is marked by memory loss, confusion and eventually the inability to care for oneself.
"Alzheimer's disease is probably a very complex disease with many things happening simultaneously," Kishore Kuchibhotla of Harvard said in a telephone interview.
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