Calcium-Related Therapies for Alzheimer's Disease?

Doctor Brian Bacskai discusses the potential of manipulating calcium levels in the brain as a potential therapy for ALzheimer's disease.

So the obvious next approach in terms of evaluating therapies are two-fold. One is if we can reduce the calcium alterations that we see in astrocytes, does that reduce the plaque pathology we see in the brain or restore cognitive function in the mouse? The second approach would be if we can remove the plaques, does this actually restore the calcium that we only see in astrocytes that’s deregulated and can we reduce the signaling? So looking at it from two points of view is that either the calcium elevations in astrocytes are beneficial or a response to a pathological insult.