The Thrust of Mainstream Alzheimer's Research
U.S. News gives a fair high-level summary of the main branches of Alzheimer's research at the present time: early diagnosis, immunotherapy and removing aggregates. From the article: "the closer science comes to a treatment for Alzheimer's, the more important early detection becomes. ... Promising techniques include MRIs used to show abnormal shrinking of the brain; pet scans to detect amyloid plaques in the brain or to spot patterns of glucose use associated with Alzheimer's; or spinal taps to look for abnormal concentrations of certain proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid during the early stages of Alzheimer's. ... Immunotherapy for Alzheimer's patients is just one of several new directions promising to transform the treatment of Alzheimer's ... We're at a juncture now where we're trying to make the transition from treating symptoms to disease-modifying treatments [that] hit at the cause of Alzheimer's. [A] whole new window is opening in terms of the approach to the disease. ... Other researchers, for example, are looking at drugs that target enzymes involved in the clumping of beta-amyloid proteins."
Link: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/brain-and-behavior/2008/01/31/attacking-alzheimers.html