Bombshell: alleged misconduct may unravel one of the most studied hypotheses in Alzheimer's research

[Anonymous]

Mind-blowing if true: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease

Literally billions of dollars and years of research have been spent on a theory that may be founded on scientific fraud. Human subjects were also exposed to trials involving drugs to target this idea that may be total hogwash. The ramifications are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Was hoping someone would make a post here so someone could explain it like I’m 5 why this is such a huge deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was hoping someone would make a post here so someone could explain it like I’m 5 why this is such a huge deal.

Papers from a long time ago are alleged to contain manipulated images for things like western blots. Western blot is a classic technique for detecting proteins of interest. The papers now under scrutiny that allegedly have manipulated western blots underpin the entire amyloid-beta hypothesis - the idea that people get amyloid beta plaques in their brain that causes the disease.

Many billions of dollars and decades of research have been spent on this idea. It has led to no good therapies. Now the question is whether the hypothesis was fraudulent in the first place. It means so much time and effort has been wasted on a dead end founded potentially on fraud. How many people died waiting for new therapies? Maybe the would have gotten it earlier if all of that money and manpower were spent on other ideas not founded on fraud? How many human subjects were needlessly exposed to experimental treatments targeting amyloid beta? Congrats, you may have exposed people to unnecessary risks to test an idea that doesn't even work because it is fraudulent.


This is so bad of true.

[Anonymous]

The crucial figure in this paper showed that the amyloid beta protein increased in mouse brains as they got older and more "demented". Now a researcher determined that this figure was probably Photoshopped to show this result. Billions have been spent on drug development targeting this protein, none of which have made any difference clinically. Possibly this was done by some post-doc wanting to please their boss and enhance their career. Or possibly the boss (lab head) was the culprit. Either way the ramifications went far beyond this paper.

[Anonymous]

Basically what it seems like is that a major study from 2006 which claimed to show that Alzheimer’s is primarily caused by the buildup of plaque in the brain was fabricated. The images that purported to show the plaque might have been faked.

Lots of people have used that research as starting points for their own research, so if the 2006 findings are invalid, that calls into question the research that came from it. Scientists that have posited other causes for Alzheimer’s have been discouraged because the 2006 study seemed so definitive.

At least that’s my read of the article, from a non-scientist’s perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically what it seems like is that a major study from 2006 which claimed to show that Alzheimer’s is primarily caused by the buildup of plaque in the brain was fabricated. The images that purported to show the plaque might have been faked.

Lots of people have used that research as starting points for their own research, so if the 2006 findings are invalid, that calls into question the research that came from it. Scientists that have posited other causes for Alzheimer’s have been discouraged because the 2006 study seemed so definitive.

At least that’s my read of the article, from a non-scientist’s perspective.

They never said that Alzheimer's was caused by a buildup of amyloid plaque -- just that there was extra amyloid plaque in brains with Alzheimers. The info was useless because they didn't know why it was there anyway.

This is a major problem with research these days -- people think interpretation of results is somehow definitive. It's not. It's interpretation. Take it from there.

[Anonymous]

Already a thread https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1072067.page#23076160