Scientists have revealed that Neuro-Fibrillary Tangles - known as Tau - are more likely to be an effect of Alzheimer's disease rather than a cause, it has been noted.

The revelation follows the news that anti-amyloid approaches to curing Alzheimer's had failed, Medical News Today reports.

Tau had been highlighted as a therapeutic target for the condition in last week's International Conference on Alzheimer's disease in Chicago.

However, experts at Anavex Life Sciences Corporation have asserted that it is simply an effect of the degenerative cognitive disease and that the true cause is Oxidative Stress which precedes both Tau and Amyloid-Beta.

Following this claim, the corporation has developed an Alzheimer's drug candidate that protects neurons from the oxidative stress and aims to focus on the key problem of the condition.

The drug candidate Anavex 1-41 has reportedly shown "great promise" in pre-clinical testing by using sigma receptors to protect against oxidative stress and repair cells compromised by its effects.

In animal test subjects the drug demonstrated a reduction in memory deficits.

In related news, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System have found that the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex may not be essential for path integration.