Medical University Of South Carolina Identifies Effective Immunotherapy For Treating Dementia And Alzheimer’s

Researchers remain perplexed as to what causes dementia and how to treat and reverse the cognitive decline seen in patients. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School discovered that cis P-tau, a toxic, non-degradable version of a healthy brain protein, is an early marker of vascular dementia (VaD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). “We believe our findings have not only discovered cis P-tau as a previously unrecognized major early driver of VaD and AD but also identified a highly effective and specific immunotherapy to target this common disease driver for treating and preventing AD and VaD at early stages,” said Onder Albayram, Ph.D., co-lead author and assistant professor in the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine at MUSC.

https://research.musc.edu/stories/news/2021/06/10/forget-me-not