Alzheimer’s vaccine step closer after new treatment reverses memory loss

A vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease could be on the horizon after scientists carried out successful trials in animals.

Researchers from the US and Germany were able to reverse memory loss in mice and are keen to move quickly to human trials.

The vaccine trains the immune system to fight a type of sticky amyloid beta protein in the brain that accumulates in people with dementia, preventing communication between neurons.

Previous drugs to fight Alzheimer’s have also concentrated on reducing amyloid, but have shown little success in reducing symptoms, with some even triggering negative side effects.

Now scientists have discovered that, in people with dementia, the protein folds itself into a hairpin-like structure, and becomes a much more dangerous form of amyloid.

Professor Mark Carr, from the Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology at the University of Leicester, explained: “This structure had never been seen before in amyloid beta.”

The team theorised that engineering amyloid into the same hairpin shape before administering it as vaccine would spur the body into producing antibodies to fight off that specific structure.

It would also allow the immune system to ignore normal forms of the protein, which are needed by the body.

When injected into mice, the vaccine triggered antibodies and helped to restore neuron function, increase glucose metabolism in the brain, reverse memory loss and reduce amyloid beta plaque formation.

New treatment could be 'transformative'

Professor Carr added: “While the science is currently still at an early stage, if these results were to be replicated in human clinical trials, then it could be transformative.

“It opens up the possibility to not only treat Alzheimer’s once symptoms are detected, but also to potentially vaccinate against the disease before symptoms appear.”

More than 520,000 people in Britain have Alzheimer’s disease and the figure is set to rise.

‏Source www.telegraph.co.uk