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Nature 423, 392-393 (22 May 2003) | doi:10.1038/423392a

Open Innovation Challenges

Alzheimer's disease: Mental plaque removal

Bart De Strooper & James Woodgett

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Lithium, already used to treat psychiatric disorders, has been found to reduce amyloid-peptide production in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The implication is that lithium's target molecule helps to generate the peptides.

Studies of people with Alzheimer's disease have revealed several notable changes in the brain, including the build-up of protein deposits known as amyloid plaques outside nerve cells, and the accumulation of so-called neurofibrillary tangles inside the cells. Should treatments for this disease target the plaques or the tangles?