A senior researcher has said he is not "pessimistic" after a series of setbacks in the search for drugs against Alzheimer’s disease.
Belgian researcher Bart De Strooper played a key role in identifying and studying the chemical gamma-secretase, which plays a key role in the disease and the accumulation of plaques in the brain associated with it.
A series of drugs were developed to use this knowledge – but trials have been abandoned after they were found to aggravate symptoms.
Dr Strooper, of the Flemish research institute VIB at Leuven, Belgium, said the failure of the drugs is a chance to "learn from the difficulties."
He sets out his thoughts in the journal Cell. He says there is still much to learn about gamma-secretase – and still possibilities to use it for drug design.
He said: "The current pessimistic mood does not answer the patients’ needs.
"We need to learn from AIDS, cholesterol or cancer research: we can only find a drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease if we are willing to learn from the difficulties that we encounter."
Bart De Strooper. Lessons from a failed gamma-secretase Alzheimer trial. Cell 6 November 2014
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