A proposed strategic research program for Alzheimer's disease.
This article has recommended four priorities for future AD research in the United States over the next 10 years: 1. Complete the development of transgenic animal models of AD. 2. Integrate studies in aging with molecular biology studies on the genetics of AD in transgenic paradigms. 3. Reexamine the nature and role of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in AD. 4. Investigate the age-dependent role of APP in AD using transgenic and aged nontransgenic animals. These recommendations are derived from my own studies and from a close review of the current literature on AD. There are undoubtedly many intriguing and even promising lines of research possible that are not mentioned here and that might deserve citation. However, with finite resources and limited time, the National Institute of Aging (NIA) should concentrate its funding on those research strategies that are most closely tied to the role of age and aging in AD. In conclusion, it may be useful to think of the future NIA agenda for AD research as a series of concentric rings, somewhat like a target. At the center and of highest priority should be purely aging-related studies, such as those just recommended. At the intermediate rings and of lower priority should be those studies that are less directly age related. Nonaging-related approaches to the study of AD would be placed at the outer-most rings and would receive funding and support from NIA only if they did not detract from critical support for the work adjudged to have higher priority, i.e., the age-related studies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Hsiao
K
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Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis 55455.
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research
D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor