A team from UCD, who worked with other researchers abroad, found a cascade of molecular events that lead to Alzheimer's disease.

The findings, published in the latest edition of Nature Medicine, suggest a potential new target for the development of drug therapies to fight the irreversible and degenerative disease, which affects more than 40,000 people in Ireland and some 29.8 million people worldwide.

The baseline cost of dementia in Ireland was estimated at €400m in 2006, while the total worldwide societal cost was estimated at somewhere in the region of $315.4bn (€200.17bn) in 2005.

The team of Irish and international researchers have identified that the accumulation of a particular protein (called amyloid-beta) in the brain initiates Alzheimer's disease and that it directly alters the structure and function of brain cells.

Co-author Professor Ciaran Region, of the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, explained: "Alzheimer's disease is a major personal and societal tragedy.

"The disease progression is torturously long and debilitating, extorting a huge emotional