One step closer to a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease

A vaccine administered to mice reduces the accumulation of both types of toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease – beta-amyloid and tau proteins – according to a study by US researchers. The substance has no side effects in the process.

Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) have reported good test resultsów on rodents a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease. A vaccine can arm the body with tools thatóre will enable an effective immune response and abolish accumulated amyloid and tau proteins. The work could open the way to a clinical trial on humans.

Alzheimer’s disease affects older osób, mostly after 65. year of life. However, it starts much earlier. We’re still not sure how, but abnormal amounts of beta-amyloid, as well as tau protein, appear to play a large role in the development of the disease. Importantly, these proteins are beginning to concentrate in móWith up to 20-30 years before the first symptoms appearów, such as memory loss.

A new study conducted by UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute shows that vaccine delivered under skóhand of the rodents induces an immune response, whichóra reduces the accumulation of harmful tau and beta-amyloid proteins. At the same time, the vaccine did not cause severe swelling of the mózgu, który appeared during earlier prób antibody treatment.

– This work is the culmination of a decade of research thatóre has repeatedly shown that the vaccine can effectively and safely target animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. I believe we are getting closer to testing this therapy in humans – said Dr. Roger Rosenberg, founder of the Alzheimer`s Disease Center at UT Southwestern.

Researchers in the study showed how toób vaccine containing DNA encoding a beta-amyloid fragment reduces róIt also made significant amounts of tau protein in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the vaccine induces a slightly different immune response than in earlier studies, która may be safe for humans. Work in Rosenberg’s lab has shown similar immune responses in crólików and monkeys.

The vaccine is found on króA short list of promising antibody therapies thatóhe goal of the vaccine is to protect against cell-damaging proteinsórki mózgowe. Such therapy makes it difficult and opófoster the formation of amyloid plaques and tanglesóin the neurofibrillaries associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease. At least in a mouse model of the disease.

Although previous studies have shown that antibodies significantly reduce the accumulation of amyloid in the mózgu, the compositeóRosenberg had to find a safe wayób introduction into the body. The idea of the researchers was to administer DNA encoding amyloid rather in skóhand than to the muscle to produce a different kind of immune response. Mouse organisms responded by inhibiting the accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins.

In studies, the któThe vaccine was administered to four groups of mice, consisting of 15-24 individualsóin, showed a 40 percent. beta-amyloid reduction and 50 percent of the. tau protein reduction. This has taken place without an adverse reaction from the body.

Syndromeół Rosenberg predicts that if amyloid plaques and tau proteins are indeed the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, achieving such quantitative reductions in humans could be of great therapeutic value. – If the onset of the disease móhead to opóźnić by up to five years, it would be a huge advance and a boon to the patientów and their families,” stressed Doris Lambracht-Washington, coó³author of the study.

Allowing the body to produce its own antibodies through active vaccination would be the best strategy, if it were safe to do so, of course. Amongód advantages also include the wider availability of the vaccine and its low price.