Alzheimer’s, amyloid and abandoned antibodies

The story of Biogen’s Aduhelm (aducanumab), the most recent attempt at an anti-amyloid antibody therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, is both instructive and somewhat depressing. Perhaps that’s partly because I started my career working on Alzheimer’s. As I often say, if you had told me 30 years ago that in 2022 we would still be arguing about whether the beta-amyloid protein was the cause of Alzheimer’s (or at least a worthwhile target), I would have been horrified. But here we are, unsure whether amyloid gives you Alzheimer’s or if Alzheimer’s gives you amyloid.