The Role of Steroids in Autoimmune Diseases

Alzheimer's is an autoimmune disease of innate immunity, the first type or the first phase of immunity. Drugs that are currently used for autoimmune diseases, particularly the rheumatological ones, no, they're not going to work for Alzheimer's in accord with our model. We found a number of small molecules related to tryptophan, an amino acid in the brain, certainly have the ability to dampen down the innate immune system of the brain. And so we're thinking that this may be an initial insight that could certainly open the door to new therapeutic approaches to Alzheimer's.