A new culture system has replicated the course of Alzheimer’s disease. The innovative laboratory culture system successfully demonstrated for the first time a reproduction of the full course of events underlying the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Investigators from the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital provided the first clear evidence in support of the hypothesis that deposition of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain is the first step in a series leading to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The investigators also identified the important role in the process of an enzyme, in which inhibition could be a therapeutic target.

Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, director of the MGH Genetics and Aging Research Unit and co-senior author of the report receiving advance online publication in Nature, said in a statement, “Originally put forth in the mid-1980s, the amyloid hypothesis maintained that beta-amyloid deposits in the brain set off all subsequent events – the neurofibrillary tangles that choke the insides of neurons, neuronal cell death, and inflammation leading to a vicious cycle of massive cell death.” He continued, “One of the biggest questions since then has been whether beta-amyloid actually triggers the formation of the tangles that kill neurons. In this new system that we call ‘Alzheimer’s-in-a-dish,’ we’ve been able to show for the first time that amyloid deposition is sufficient to lead to tangles and subsequent cell death.”

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases.