Charles Piller

They refined just one little segment of the protein, something they called amyloid beta star 56, their star protein. They injected it into rats, and rats began to show the apparent symptoms of memory loss that they compared to memory loss of Alzheimer's disease.

They refined just one little segment of the protein, something they called amyloid beta star 56, their star protein. They injected it into rats, and rats began to show the apparent symptoms of memory loss that they compared to memory loss of Alzheimer's disease.

So what you had was the first kind of cause-effector relationship of a particular substance towards Alzheimer's disease, albeit in animals, but still something that really inspired the science. Now, Why was it so important? Why was it so pivotal? If you don't mind, Dylan, what I'd like to do is go back more than 100 years to tell kind of the story of the disease. How did we get here?

So what you had was the first kind of cause-effector relationship of a particular substance towards Alzheimer's disease, albeit in animals, but still something that really inspired the science. Now, Why was it so important? Why was it so pivotal? If you don't mind, Dylan, what I'd like to do is go back more than 100 years to tell kind of the story of the disease. How did we get here?

Why was this a meaningful part of the scientific picture? So the reason is that Alzheimer's disease was first described in 1906 by the German scientist Alzheimer, namesake of the disease. And it involved... When he did... an examination of brain tissue from one of his patients who had died with terrible dementia. And this brain tissue showed these two kinds of really obvious proteins.

Why was this a meaningful part of the scientific picture? So the reason is that Alzheimer's disease was first described in 1906 by the German scientist Alzheimer, namesake of the disease. And it involved... When he did... an examination of brain tissue from one of his patients who had died with terrible dementia. And this brain tissue showed these two kinds of really obvious proteins.

One was this amyloid protein that I mentioned before, the so-called sticky plaques that listeners may be familiar with that are regarded as a classic sign of the disease. And another protein that is called tau, which is called the tangles because it looks like kind of tangled string and it resides within the nerve cells of the brain.

One was this amyloid protein that I mentioned before, the so-called sticky plaques that listeners may be familiar with that are regarded as a classic sign of the disease. And another protein that is called tau, which is called the tangles because it looks like kind of tangled string and it resides within the nerve cells of the brain.

So this combination of plaques, tangles, and dementia was defined and described as Alzheimer's disease. And so what happened for many decades after that was honestly not that much. And the reason it was not that much was that this disease is a disease of old people, basically. primarily old people. Very, very few people get it in their younger years.

So this combination of plaques, tangles, and dementia was defined and described as Alzheimer's disease. And so what happened for many decades after that was honestly not that much. And the reason it was not that much was that this disease is a disease of old people, basically. primarily old people. Very, very few people get it in their younger years.

And consequently, because of simple demographics, for many decades after 1906, there weren't really that many people living into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and beginning to show the symptoms of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. So while it was a well-known syndrome, it was not an important disease.

And consequently, because of simple demographics, for many decades after 1906, there weren't really that many people living into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and beginning to show the symptoms of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. So while it was a well-known syndrome, it was not an important disease.

But come the 50s, 60s, 70s, when gigantically important developments in medicine like vaccines, antibiotics, remedies for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all of these things suddenly became prevalent in our medical practice and people began to understand better how to treat them and lifespans increased dramatically. Consequently, we had a lot more old people and those old people

But come the 50s, 60s, 70s, when gigantically important developments in medicine like vaccines, antibiotics, remedies for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all of these things suddenly became prevalent in our medical practice and people began to understand better how to treat them and lifespans increased dramatically. Consequently, we had a lot more old people and those old people

unfortunately, many of them began to get dementia, dementia described as Alzheimer's disease. So suddenly Alzheimer's disease became a very important, very important kind of disease to study. And a lot of money went into it. A lot of ideas came out.

unfortunately, many of them began to get dementia, dementia described as Alzheimer's disease. So suddenly Alzheimer's disease became a very important, very important kind of disease to study. And a lot of money went into it. A lot of ideas came out.

And the prevalent idea, the idea that gained the most power in the field, that had the most currency among scientists and physicians and funders and journals, everybody, was something called the amyloid hypothesis. And as I said before, what this involves is...

And the prevalent idea, the idea that gained the most power in the field, that had the most currency among scientists and physicians and funders and journals, everybody, was something called the amyloid hypothesis. And as I said before, what this involves is...

The deposits of amyloid protein that build up in the brain cause a cascade of biochemical effects in the brain that eventually lead to dementia, cell death, and the terrible symptoms of the disease. This was really very widely accepted. And so what happened was they built a lot of new drugs around this idea, drugs that attack the amyloid plaques and try to remove them from the brain.

The deposits of amyloid protein that build up in the brain cause a cascade of biochemical effects in the brain that eventually lead to dementia, cell death, and the terrible symptoms of the disease. This was really very widely accepted. And so what happened was they built a lot of new drugs around this idea, drugs that attack the amyloid plaques and try to remove them from the brain.