Ruminations: Solving The Puzzle Of Alzheimer's

"This structure had never been seen before in amyloid beta."
"If these results were to be replicated to 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."
Prof.Mark Carr, Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, University of Leicester, Britain

"In this thorough and well-conducted research carried out in mice with features of Alzheimer's disease, scientists found a vaccine administered through injections found the intended target and helped improve metabolism in brain regions associated with memory and thinking."
"Early results in a behavioural task suggest the mice had improved memory and thinking, hinting that this could be a promising new approach, and one that has so far not been tested in Alzheimer's drugs in clinical trials."
Dr.Susan Kohlhaas, director of research, Alzheimer's Research U.K.

ScienceAlert

One of the signal grails of solving one of the most devastating diseases striking down people by withdrawing personal agency with the failure of the human thought process, memory, and eventually, neural instructions, brain-to-bodily competence leading to death may have been discovered. With a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease on the horizon following successful trials conducted by research scientists on animal models.

Experimental trials saw researchers from the United States and Germany reversing memory loss in mice. With that success they are anxious to bring their vaccine to the validating trial that has the potential to change the trajectory of dementia in Alzheimer's, realizing the hope this dread disease could be conquered. The next step is in human trials.

What the vaccine has been geared to is directing the immune system to combat a type of sticky amyloid beta protein in the brain. The immune system undergoes a training led by the vaccine to fight off the accumulation of the sticky matter which prevents neuronal communication. Drugs previously devised to fight Alzheimer's concentrated on reducing amyloid -- but with little success in symptom reduction and on occasion negative side-effects surfaced with their use.

In people with dementia, scientists have now discovered, the protein folds itself into a hairpin-like structure and as such becomes a far more dangerous form of amyloid. Theorizing that engineering amyloid into the very same hairpin shape before administering it as a vaccine would spur the body to produce antibodies to fight off that specific structure, the team proceeded on that basis. In the process the immune system would ignore normal forms of the protein, required by the body to function.

The vaccine, once injected into mice, triggered antibodies, helping to restore neuron function. It increased glucose metabolism in the brain, reversing memory loss and reducing amyloid beta plaque formation, the 'sticky' mess associated with Alzheimer's' progress. Published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers now are pursuing the avenue of partnering with a commercial entity for the therapeutic antibody and vaccine to be taken through clinical trials.

"In clinical trials, none of the potential treatments which dissolve amyloid plaques in the brain have shown much success in terms of reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms. Some have even shown negative side effects."
"So, we decided on a different approach. We identified an antibody in mice that would neutralize the truncated forms of soluble amyloid beta but would not bind either to normal forms of the protein or to the plaques."
Professor Thomas Bayer, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany