This headline and the accompanying picture from the Guardian caught our attention and made us laugh.
US driver pulled over with huge African bull riding shotgun in car.
Converted vehicle stopped in Nebraska with gigantic-horned Watusi bovine called Howdy Doody as passenger.
WTH!
We’ve seen these pictures countless times now and they still make us laugh.
Four puns come to mind:
The first is Holy Cow!
The second is, how does the driver “steer”?
Third, is the car a Taurus?
Fourth, did other drivers greet the car with horns?
Humor aside, since our lead therapy, nibrozetone (RRx-001), is active in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s (AD), we briefly mention an influential 2006 Nature manuscript on which the research community has called “bull.”
This manuscript, which has been cited over 2,200 times, adds support to the hypothesis that a novel oligomer or form of beta amyloid, Aβ*56, is a cause for Alzheimer’s disease. However, the lead author of the manuscript, Sylvain Lesné, stands accused of data manipulation (see Syvain Lesne is a failed scientist).
The significance of these allegations is that it puts the whole beta-amyloid (Aβ) hypothesis on trial, even outside of Dr. Lesné’s actions, especially considering the controversy around the recent approval of two anti-beta amyloid monoclonal antibodies for AD, Aduhelm and Leqembi (see blog post Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alzheimer’$ Disease with Aduhelm and Leqembi).
What may make more sense than beta amyloid as a causative agent for AD is neuroinflammation to which the presence of Aβ possibly contributes.
Our small molecule NLRP3 inhibitor, nibrozetone (RRx-001), because it reduces neuroinflammation broadly, potentially from many sources, including Aβ may demonstrate better activity than Aduhelm and Leqembi.
We put the word “may” in italics to emphasize it, so no one calls bull.