Recently, the scientific community broke out that the research of the 2006 “Nature” journal may be fake. The theme is amyloid protein, one of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, which has attracted global attention. The Taiwan Science and Technology Media Center held a press conference on the 27th and invited experts to explain that the two Experts say that even if a study confirms fraud, it will have little impact on existing research.
▲ SMC invited experts to hold an online press conference on Alzheimer’s disease research fraud. (Source: SMC)
On the 27th, Taiwan Science and Technology Media Center (SMC) invited researcher Chen Yunru of the Genome Research Center of the Academia Sinica and associate professor Zheng Hanruo of the Institute of Brain Science of Yangming Jiaotong University to hold an online press conference to explain the fake Alzheimer’s disease research incident.
The amyloid pathogenic hypothesis was agreed as early as 1992
Chen Yunru pointed out that in 1992, the scientific community established the hypothesis that the accumulation of Aβ (Amyloid-β) amyloid protein will cause Alzheimer’s disease, which is more than the suspected fake in 2006. Lesné) published the paper 14 years earlier.
But in the early 2000s, the main difficulty for the scientific community was that it was unable to identify which “oligomers” of beta-amyloid monomers caused cognitive degradation in the brain.
The theme of the paper accused of fraud is the specific structure of “Aβ*56”
Zheng Hanruo said that although this paper was a heavyweight research at the time, the experimental results emphasized the “Aβ*56” structure, which is the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
But for good experimental results, at least a certain percentage of people should be able to get the same results. However, after the publication of this paper, many teams from various countries, including one of the Alzheimer’s authorities, Professor Dannis Selkoe from Harvard University, etc. It was not possible to reproduce Rice’s findings.
In addition, more follow-up studies have found that other types of Aβ structures are also pathogenic, so fewer people in the academic community specialize in Aβ*56. In the past decade, there have only been 20 to 30 Aβ*56-related papers. If it were not for this incident, The existence of Aβ*56 is almost forgotten by the academic community.
This research fraud case mainly affects researchers who have been focusing on Aβ*56 in recent years, and their efforts may be wasted.
Amyloid is not the only cause of Alzheimer’s
Wang Peining, director of the Dementia Treatment and Research Center of Taipei Rong Zong, said that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by many factors, not just amyloid.
In addition to the “amyloid hypothesis”, tau protein, inflammatory response, vascular factors, metabolic changes, oxidative stress, mitochondria, trace elements and many other factors are intertwined to cause sustained and severe damage to the brain.
In recent years, the clinical effects of many drugs developed against the amyloid hypothesis have not been satisfactory, so the development of drugs has also been developed in various directions. At present, only 29% of the drugs that have entered the third phase clinical trial of Alzheimer’s disease (the last clinical trial before listing) are related to anti-amyloid mechanisms, and there are other anti-pathogenic mechanisms such as anti-tau protein, anti-oxidation, anti-inflammatory Inflammatory drugs are in trials.
Zheng Hanruo also said that the current domestic drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease mainly focus on slowing nerve inflammation and reducing amyloid accumulation, and there is no drug specifically targeting Aβ*56.
Although this incident of research fraud has limited impact on existing Alzheimer’s research, experts at the meeting said that if the fraud is true after investigation, it will cause a devastating blow to the reputation of the publishing scholars, the entire team and the academic institutions they represent. .
In addition, it may also increase unnecessary doubts and concerns of patients and their families when seeking medical treatment. This is why the global academic community attaches so much importance to academic ethics, and it is also the driving force that all relevant domestic scholars are concerned and must clarify fraud cases.
(First image credit: shutterstock)
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