Alzheimer's vaccine: looking for volunteers

Active immunization against Alzheimer's disease consists in the administration of beta-amyloid protein to patients, which triggers a specific humoral immune response against the disease. The antibodies formed in this case contribute to the purification of the brain from aggregates of this protein, the excessive accumulation of which is considered the root cause of Alzheimer's disease.

At the recent congress of the Society of Neuroscientists, university researchers working under the leadership of Dr. Scott Turner presented new data they obtained in experiments on a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. It turned out that the greater the amount of beta-amyloid contained in the brain, the higher the likelihood of an animal developing severe inflammation of brain tissues. Such inflammatory reactions reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, whereas in animals with a small beta-amyloid load in brain tissue, vaccination causes significant improvements in neurodegeneration symptoms.

Based on these results, it was decided to include exclusively patients with moderate cognitive impairment and a relatively small number of amyloid plaques in the brain in the new clinical study.

According to Dr. Turner, patients with Alzheimer's disease are often unaware of the asymptomatic inflammatory processes occurring in their brain. Therefore, all applicants for participation in a clinical trial are undergoing magnetic resonance imaging, which allows to detect swelling of the brain indicating the presence of inflammation. Turner also notes that, perhaps, in the future, the optimal immunization scheme against Alzheimer's disease will have to be selected individually, depending on the severity of the disease.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Georgetown University: Vaccines May Work Best in Early Stage Alzheimer's Patients.

18.11.2011