Gu H, Wei X, Monnot AD et al.
Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Neurosci Lett 2011;490:16–20.
Editor’s note: This study documents that, at least in mice, Alzheimer amyloid can accumulate in the brain in response to a systemic injury, in this case lead poisoning. Accumulation of various forms of amyloid is a well-known response of many tissues to many types of injury. That does not, of course, mean that amyloid is harmless. However, in recent decades, a popular theory of Alzheimer’s disease has been that amyloid has a primary role in the pathogenesis, rather than being a consequence of other types of brain damage.