Health Watch: Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Discovery
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In Health Watch, doctors at the Mayo Clinic have made a major discovery in the fight to find a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. They have uncovered a new link between a protein in the brain and the disease.
Mayo Clinic made the announcement Thursday after four years of study.
They say the key to the disease may be the protein called TDP-43. What Mayo researchers found is that when that protein becomes abnormal, a person is more likely to show symptoms of Alzheimer's.
The next step will be for doctors to develop a test to identify that abnormal protein in a patient and then develop drugs that can target it.
The Mayo Clinic says it will be "another few years" before they can create the test and drug.
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