• InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    This is nice, but do we have finality on tau proteins as the cause and not effect? I’m in favor of the tau theory but there was some doubt as to the conclusiveness of those studies.

    Even if it is tau, I’ve read several theories of how tau manifests as AD, each claiming to be the real reason.

    You’d think we’d have some genetic correlations for this by now considering the severity and frequency.

    • Thalamus@lemmy.worldM
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      11 months ago

      I guess for clinical use it doesn’t really matter? As long as there’s an effect on clinical endpoints.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You’re right, I just don’t like it when we invest huge sums on research based purely on clinical results. Better than models that don’t show efficacy in clinical trials, but still, magic drugs always bother me.

        • Thalamus@lemmy.worldM
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          11 months ago

          Yeah I get it. The companies developing these drugs or funding the research probably don’t care about fundamental knowledge. Even in pure academia people would probably rather have some publishable results than actual insight in a disease.

          If they did, there could’ve been some psychiatric diseases that were actually understood as well.

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yeah, also read the abstract, it’s positive, but there are definite questions, the increase in ventricular volume was odd for one.

            I just think we haven’t quite nailed the cause down yet, even if we’re close, there’s a wrinkle and trying to treat things we “almost understand” is risky (you can ‘cure’ some forms of mental illness with a lobotomy, but that’s not the point).