Projekt

Over 100 years ago, Aloys Alzheimer described two histological abnormalities of a new brain disease (subsequently named after him) that are still used for its post-mortem confirmation: amyloid deposits and tau-fibrils. But until today the exact cause of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), an age-associated disorder, remains unknown. This book asks the question how it is that despite extensive worldwide research efforts in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, constantly refining methods and mounting data, the cause of AD remains in the dark. One reason could be the concentration on the biochemistry of amyloid, in particular in the last three decades. Although there are many more research lines followed, including the analysis of the impact of neuroinflammation, mitochondrial and synaptic changes or infection, the perception that AD research concentrates on amyloid dominates. This book is not about the pros and cons of any specific Alzheimer hypothesis but about the development, the evolution, of the international AD research. It tries to find reasons for the partial ?amyloid-tunnel-vision" in Alzheimer research that only recently appears to have somewhat weakened due to the failures of amyloidcentred clinical trials. The question will be tackled how AD research has evolved since Aloys Alzheimer. In addition, this book searches for an answer to the question why certain hypotheses are dominating others. Moreover, it will ask how agenda setting factors can drive a research concentration, and whether the observed focus on one hypothesis and its dominating perception is an exclusive feature of AD research or rather represents a general phenomenon in medical science. Finally, this book aims to objectively summarize where we currently stand regarding the treatment of AD and what could be novel avenues of research.

• Prof. Dr. Christian Behl

  Universitätsmedizin der Johannes
  Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  Institut für Pathobiochemie
  Mainz