New Alzheimer's Cure: Bugs up the Nose

clipped from www.medicalnewstoday.com New Approach To Delaying Onset Of Alzheimer's Disease Scientists working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease find it hard to develop drugs that will pass through the highly selective blood-brain barrier. That may be why a Tel Aviv University researcher decided to take an alternate route -- through the nose. Scientists widely agree that plaque formation is what causes the onslaught of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Administering a harmless bacterial virus known as a "filamentous phage" through nasal passages, Prof. Beka Solomon of the university's Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Department sends her phages to the brain where they lock onto plaques associated with Alzheimer's.