Potential super vaccine
Perhaps soon there will be a vaccine for the treatment of psoriasis, allergies and Alzheimer's disease
Anna Kerman, XX2 century, based on Medical Xpress: Vaccinating against psoriasis, allergies and Alzheimer's a possibility, research shows
A study conducted by a team of authors from the University of Dundee and the University of Oxford has shown that combining tetanus vaccine with viral particles can lead to the appearance of a drug for the treatment of psoriasis and allergic diseases. Moreover, in this way, it is theoretically possible to develop even a vaccine to protect against Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The vaccine, which was obtained by combining tetanus vaccination with viruses that usually infect cucumber shoots, demonstrated effectiveness in a model of psoriasis and cat allergies. In addition, it was able to increase the level of antibodies, presumably playing an important role in protecting against Alzheimer's disease. Such vaccines can be both preventive (which scientists hope for in the context of AD) and curative. The latter means that the administration of the drug will help those who have a disease – for example, psoriasis – has already developed.
The work was led by Dr. John Foerster from the University of Dundee and Professor Martin Bacman from Oxford. The researchers were able to isolate the protein shell of the cucumber mosaic virus and combine it with the tetanus vaccine protein, known for its ability to stimulate the immune system. Thus, a vaccine was obtained to combat many chronic diseases.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the new vaccine in real clinical practice, additional research will be required. However, the work already done by scientists from the Universities of Dundee and Oxford gives hope to hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from chronic diseases.
Dr. Foerster says: "As a dermatologist, especially interested in the immune system, I am closely following the development of vaccines to combat chronic skin diseases. The idea is quite simple: for the treatment of diseases such as psoriasis and eczema, antibody-based drugs are considered the newest and most effective. Antibodies are what our body produces when we have a cold.
If we are talking about chronic diseases, the patient needs antibodies to one of the proteins of his own body. By blocking this single protein, we achieve an improvement in the condition. Take, for example, psoriasis. In order for the disease to develop, the so-called interleukin-17 is needed. By creating a vaccine that forces the immune system to independently produce antibodies to interleukin-17, we can abandon frequent and expensive injections, replacing them with more affordable and simple treatment."
During the work, it was shown that the new vaccine is effective when used in mice. And, even more significantly, the results of the study suggest that the new drug, when administered to elderly patients, is likely to be more effective than existing analogues. This is important because many people suffering from psoriasis and other chronic diseases belong to the older age group.
Existing antibody-based drugs for the treatment of psoriasis must be administered at least once a month, and the annual price of therapy can be more than 10 thousand dollars.
As for Alzheimer's disease, it is known that it is caused by the formation of plaques in the brain from the beta-amyloid protein. Previous studies in which patients were tried to directly inject antibodies failed. But the new work suggests that the early introduction of a preventive vaccine may be an effective way to combat Alzheimer's disease even before the appearance of clinical signs of the disease. Repeated injections of antibodies cannot achieve this effect.
The results of the study are published in npj Vaccines (Zeltins et al., Incorporation of tetanus-epitope into virus-like particles achieves vaccine responses even in older recipients in models of psoriasis, Alzheimer's and cat allergy). Now the authors of the work plan to start clinical trials of the new vaccine – permission to use it on humans has already been received. The researchers also plan to combat Parkinson's disease and chronic pain syndromes.
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