To determine the underlying causes of neuronal vulnerability at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a research team from the UC San Francisco’s Memory & Aging Center made use of brain tissue samples from two brain regions with differing susceptibility to AD. By examining differences in gene expression in the two specific brain areas, they were able to determine that that the brain's cholesterol regulation mechanisms may be a factor underlying selective vulnerability to AD.

A study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, a leading journal in dementia research, has demonstrated the high accuracy of plasma p-tau217 as a blood-based biomarker for detecting abnormal brain beta-amyloid (Aβ) pathology, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).