Amyloid inhibitors, once considered the secret to preventing Alzheimer’s, have been found to be ineffective in the treatmentor prevention of Alzheimer’s, a new study has found. And according to BrianShoichet, senior study author and chemist at the University of California, SanFrancisco, researchers experimenting with amyloid inhibitors “shouldstop.”

Previous research has found that, in Alzheimer’s disease,proteins like amyloid-beta stick together in the brain tissue. It had beenthought that amyloid inhibitors would prevent this buildup of proteins.  Researchers at UCSF, however, havefound that the so-called inhibitors actually form large clumps themselves,making them ineffective tools in treatment or prevention of the disease.

The study was published Jan. 27 in Nature ChemicalBiology, a monthly research journal.