Unexpected findings suggest need for alternate therapeutic approaches, different animal models for future research.

One of the characteristics of the brain of people with Alzheimer disease (AD) is the presence of tangles, insoluble twisted fibers that build up inside the nerve cells of the brain resulting in malfunctions in communication between nerves and later in their death.

A new study finds that the Pin1 enzyme, previously shown to be of benefit in "detangling" tau in Alzheimer's disease, actually has the contradictory effect in cases in which the tau has certain mutations.