Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

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Credit to Heldnova from the Neurotrope board. A very interesting article that seems to indicate that a few dinosaurs or BP plants within the NIH may be the choke point preventing funding for new theories for Alzheimer’s.


https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/29/alzheimers-research-outsider-bucked-prevailing-theory/

“The bacteria acted like a hunk of cow dropped into a tank of piranha: Amyloid fibrils emerged practically instantly, and plaques formed within 48 hours, ensnaring the bacteria and preventing brain infection. It was more evidence that beta-amyloid is not a neuro-toxic mistake but a defense against microbes — which enter the brain more frequently as people age and the blood-brain barrier becomes leaky.”

“To find out, he injected herpes viruses into the Alzheimer’s-in-a-dish. Within 48 hours, beta-amyloid encased the viruses in nano-nets and prevented them from infecting neurons. But it also triggered the formation of plaques between neurons, which in turn sparked formation of tau tangles inside them. Mice genetically engineered to produce human beta-amyloid did the same, quickly developing virus-trapping beta-amyloid plaques.”

“He probably had the bad luck to be assigned a reviewer “who’s either completely unqualified, or simply says, ‘I don’t believe it’ [that microbes have anything to do with Alzheimer’s], or who’s a dyed-in-the-wool believer in the old amyloid hypothesis and doesn’t even read the scientific literature anymore,” Tanzi speculated. “This is why the most boring, incremental stuff gets funded. If it’s a Hail Mary, they figure nah, no one will ever catch that” — so risky research is rejected.”




If he and other scientists are right that beta-amyloid is an antimicrobial, that the brain goes on an amyloid-making immune rampage in response to pathogens, and that the rampage ignites neuron-killing inflammation, it suggests very different therapeutic approaches than the 30-year pursuit of amyloid destroyers.