A major study began on Monday that will try to determine if early intervention will block Alzheimer's in people with a sticky build-up in their brain of a protein, beta-amyloid, that's thought to play a role in the disease.
While having higher levels of the protein doesn't mean a person will necessarily get Alzheimer's, researchers want to know if intervening early will make a difference for those who do develop the disease, The Associated Press reports. Volunteers — healthy seniors who have undergone PET scans to see if they have enough beta-amyloid in the brain to take part — will be hooked up to IVs and given either a placebo or the experimental medicine solanezumab. The hope is that solanezumab will catch amyloid before it is able to transform into the telltale brain plaque found in Alzheimer's patients.
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