DR. ALAN SNOW PUBLISHES LANDMARK PAPER PERTAINING TO “THE UNIFYING HYPOTHESIS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE – HEPARAN SULFATE PROTEOGLYCANS/ GLYCOSAMINOGLYCANS ARE KEY AS FIRST HYPOTHESIZED OVER 30 YEARS AGO”

Edmonds, WA, Oct 4, 2021 - Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience published a new breakthrough paper by Dr Alan Snow on “The New Unifying Hypothesis of Alzheimer’s Disease”. Dr. Snow is one of the founders of Cognitive Clarity Inc. (with Dr. Rudy Tanzi of Harvard University and MGH) and inventors /developers of Percepta^® dietary supplements. Dr. Snow in 1988 first discovered a protein-carbohydrate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, known as “heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs)”. He later (in the early 1990’s) worked with Dr. Stanley Prusiner and also demonstrated HSPGs in the plaques in brains of people and animals with prion diseases (such as mad-cow disease and animal scrapie). Dr. Prusiner went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997. Dr. Snow’s theories on the role of specific HSPGs in the cause of Alzheimer’s disease goes back all the way to 1989, where he published a breakthrough paper (with Dr. Thomas Wight in Neurobiology of Aging) pertaining to the causative role of HSPGs in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and other misfolded protein disorders.

The new paper published on Oct 4, 2021, in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience by Snow et al is entitled “The Unifying Hypothesis of Alzheimer’s Disease: Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans/ Glycosaminoglycans are Key as First Hypothesized Over 30 Years Ago” and can be downloaded at the link https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.710683 

This paper updates new research studies by Dr. Snow and others in the last 10 years, pertaining to how the accumulation of HSPGs and its carbohydrate portion called “heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)” accumulate in the aging brain and lead to the formation of “plaques and tangles” that begin in the aging brain due to a) brain aging, b) genetic deficits, c) splice variants and/or d) environment in which the accumulation of HS GAGs appear to be an initiating factor.  This new paper demonstrates how HSPGs can account for many different hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease causation including ApoE variants, and the role of bacteria and viruses.

This new paper also further solidifies Dr. Alan Snow, one of the inventors of Percepta^® dietary supplements, as one of the leading neuroscientists on brain aging, memory loss, and understanding the causation of protein misfolding disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.