
Dr. Robert Moir, who proposed beta amyloid helps prevent Alzheimer's, dies at 58 - bookofjoe
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/science/robert-moir-dead.html
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masonic
Actual title: "Robert Moir, 58, Dies; His Research Changed Views on
Alzheimer’s"

The altered title makes no sense (beta amyloid _helps prevent_ Alzheimer's?)

~~~
bookofjoe
>Conventional wisdom held that beta amyloid accumulation was a central part of
the disease, and that clearing the brain of beta amyloid would be a good thing
for patients.

Dr. Moir proposed instead that beta amyloid is there for a reason: It is the
way the brain defends itself against infections. Beta amyloid, he said, forms
a sticky web that can trap microbes. The problem is that sometimes the brain
goes overboard producing it, and when that happens the brain is damaged.

The implication is that treatments designed to clear the brain of amyloid
could be detrimental. The goal would be to remove some of the sticky
substance, but not all of it.

The idea, which Dr. Moir first proposed 12 years ago, was met with skepticism.
But he kept at it, producing a string of papers with findings that supported
the hypothesis. Increasingly, some of the doubters have been won over, said
Rudolph Tanzi, a close friend and fellow Alzheimer’s researcher at Harvard.

~~~
yorwba
> Beta amyloid, he said, forms a sticky web that can trap microbes.

That's not saying that beta amyloid helps prevent Alzheimer's, it's saying
that removing beta amyloid to prevent Alzheimer's may lead to infections.

