Dr. Weaver's research interests are focused on computer-aided drug design and medicinal chemistry with particular applications to chronic neurodegenerative disorders.
The pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer's disease is becoming an increasingly competitive and contentious quest with recent years witnessing several important controversies.
With millions of people needing an effective treatment, why are researchers still fumbling in this quest for a cure for what is arguably one of the most important diseases confronting humankind? My laboratory at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network in Toronto, is devising a new theory of Alzheimer's disease. Based on our past 30 years of research, we no longer think of Alzheimer's as primarily a disease of the brain. Rather, we believe that Alzheimer's is principally a disorder of the immune system within the brain.
Alzheimer's as autoimmune diseaseWe believe that beta-amyloid is not an abnormally produced protein, but rather is a normally occurring molecule that is part of the brain's immune system. It is supposed to be there. When brain trauma occurs or when bacteria are present in the brain, beta-amyloid is a key contributor to the brain's comprehensive immune response. And this is where the problem begins.
When regarded as a misdirected attack by the brain's immune system on the very organ it is supposed to be defending, Alzheimer's disease emerges as an autoimmune disease. There are many types of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, in which autoantibodies play a crucial role in the development of the disease, and for which steroid-based therapies can be effective. But these therapies will not work against Alzheimer's disease.
Other theories of the diseaseIn addition to this autoimmune theory of Alzheimer's, many other new and varied theories are beginning to appear. For example, some scientists believe that Alzheimer's is a disease of tiny cellular structures called mitochondria — the energy factories in every brain cell. Mitochondria convert oxygen from the air we breathe and glucose from the food we eat into the energy required for remembering and thinking.
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