How Alzheimer's Disease Works

A new study links the APOE4 gene variant to a protein that weakens the brain's blood vessel barrier, in mice and human tissue. To see why that matters, this film explains Alzheimer's disease from the start: Alois Alzheimer's first patient in 1906, how neurons and synapses hold memories, how amyloid plaques and tau tangles form, how damage spreads through the brain over decades, why age and APOE4 raise the risk, and how the disease is diagnosed and treated today. Add amyloid and tau, step through the Braak stages, choose APOE versions and open the blood–brain barrier yourself. Education, not medical advice.

The slow unravelling

Why some people with a risky gene stay sharp.

Auguste’s brain

Two strange deposits, seen for the first time.

Eighty-six billion cells

Memories live in connections.

Sticky fragments

The plaques are made of amyloid beta.

Broken tracks

The tangles are made of tau.

Six stages

Tangles follow the same route in brain after brain.

Age, then genes

A common gene that tilts the odds.

The cleaners

Immune cells that help, and can harm.

What else is linked

Risk factors across whole populations.

Before the first symptom

Amyloid, then tau, then shrinkage, then memory.

Seeing the proteins

From memory tests to a blood test.

Slowing, not curing

Clearing amyloid, at a modest pace and a cost.

A leaky wall

Where APOE e4 may do some of its harm.

The long silence

If you notice memory changes, talk to a doctor.

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