News Neuroscience

A rare mutation helped one man stave off Alzheimer’s for decades

It’s the second such case ever to be reported

An illustration of tau proteins, in orange, with blue and purple proteins floating around.

Aggregations of proteins called tau tangles (orange clumps in this illustration of a brain cell) are one of the major signs of Alzheimer's disease.

JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images Plus

By Simon Makin

A rare genetic mutation never seen before protected a man with an inherited form of Alzheimer’s from developing the disease for decades.

He is the second person found to have such protection, following a report in 2019 of a