I
think about Alzheimer’s more than someone my age probably should. But I don’t think I’m alone. There is
something uniquely haunting about the disease. Anyone who has watched a
loved one disappear—their memories slipping and personality fading—will
know how tenaciously the experience stays with you.
For decades, research has made frustratingly little progress towards a
cure for Alzheimer’s. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies have mostly
chased a single theory, pouring tens of
billions of dollars into treatments that, at best, only slow the
progression of the disease.
But now a growing number of researchers are exploring a very different
idea, that viruses might trigger Alzheimer’s.
The theory has exciting implications for treatment. If viruses are the
cause it might be possible to treat, or even prevent, the disease using
drugs we already have. For future sufferers, and people who think about
Alzheimer’s as much as I do, it offers a reason for hope.
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