Scientists are experimenting with a novel approach to treating Alzheimer's disease in mice. They're using a drug that helps the brain make energy. NPR's Jon Hamilton says in a mouse, at least, the treatment can reverse memory loss.

HAMILTON: The results appear in the journal Science, and Shannon Macauley of the University of Kentucky says they show that Alzheimer's involves a lot more than just plaques and tangles.

SHANNON MACAULEY: The thought that we can have these metabolic changes in our brain but they're reversible, to me, is a very exciting development and can kind of change how we think about targeting this disease.

HAMILTON: Macauley, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, says the research adds to the evidence that cells other than neurons play an important role in Alzheimer's. She says the brain is a bit like a beehive. Neurons may be the queen bees, but they're kept alive by worker bees like astrocytes.

MACAULEY: And those worker bees are getting unbelievably taxed from all the things that they're being asked to do, and so when that happens, the whole system doesn't work well. And I think that's what's happening kind of in the Alzheimer's brain.

Listen to the full interview here.