A cure for dementia could be found within five years, the leader of the global council on the disease has said.
Dr Dennis Gillings, outgoing chairman of the World Dementia Council, said recent scientific progress had surpassed his expectations, with two potential breakthroughs now on the horizon.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said he was "optimistic" that treatments that could remove the plaques in the brain linked with dementia, and those to unscramble the neural tangles that characterise the disease, might be developed as soon as 2020.
Dr Gillings, appointed by David Cameron in 2013 to create the global council, said "great strides" had been made in improving scientific understanding of dementia and of the gaps in research.
"The original goal [of the council] was disease modification by 2025," he said. "I feel a lot more optimistic now: I wouldn't be surprised if we get there by 2020 or 2021."