Researchers may have found a new cause of dementia

By Julia Ries | Fact-checked by Barbara Bekiesz

Published April 1, 2025

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“Theoretically, there would need to be new drug discoveries aimed at restoring processes that recycle these stress granules to prevent toxicity to neurons in the brain." — Ozan Toy, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at Telepsychiatry, NJ
“Chronic stressors associated with aging lead to chronic persistence of these granules and further neuronal damage." — Roula Al-Dahhak, MD, board-certified neurologist, founder of Memory Training Center

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Researchers have been working to understand what, exactly, causes dementia in hopes of developing a treatment that can stop the neurodegenerative disease before it causes cognitive decline.

According to a new study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, “stress granules,” or clumps of proteins that form when cells are under stress, may be responsible for tau accumulation.^[] As many physicians already know, prior research has suggested people with dementia have higher levels of tau.^[]

According to Ozan Toy, MD, MPH, the chief medical officer at Telepsychiatry in NJ, these stress granules “help the cell press ‘pause’ on normal functioning until it recovers” The trouble starts, he continues, when those stress granules persist in the cells.

“Typically, these stress granules need to be removed by the cells eventually, and if they do not, it can eventually disrupt the normal functioning of the cell,” says Dr. Toy.

Over time, they can affect how protein forms in the cells, leading to impaired neuron functioning, according to Roula Al-Dahhak, MD, a board-certified neurologist and founder of the Memory Training Center in St. Louis. “Chronic stressors associated with aging lead to chronic persistence of these granules and further neuronal damage,” she says.

Will this help researchers develop a more effective treatment for dementia? Perhaps in the future, experts suspect. “Theoretically, there would need to be new drug discoveries aimed at restoring processes that recycle these stress granules to prevent toxicity to neurons in the brain,” says Dr. Toy.

But a lot more research is needed to understand how, exactly, stress granules lead to dementia, says Dr. Al-Dahhak. “It is too soon to have a conclusion on this,” she says.