A team of scientists are investigating an Alzheimer's-related toxin that causes the brain to become insulin resistant. Acting in the same way as the body does with Type 2 diabetes, the damage caused by the Alzheimer's toxin would be much like a third type of diabetes, or Type 3 diabetes.

William Klein, who identified the toxin that harms the brain in Alzheimer's disease, explained, "If you look closely at a high-resolution [image], you'll see that they [insulin receptors] are at synapses. Before we added the ADDLs [toxins], they all had insulin receptors." But with the toxin added to the culture dishes, "the insulin receptors disappeared from their surfaces."

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