The SENS Foundation has published a series of posts over the past year or so that follow progress in the development of immunotherapies to remove the age-related buildup of amyloid in the brain - much of it intended as treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Success here will, however, lead to a broader technology platform that might ultimately be turned against any damaging aggregate that builds up in the body with age. These aggregates contribute to aging itself, and so removing them is one necessary part of any comprehensive rejuvenation biotechnology package: "soluble and insoluble aggregates of beta-amyloid protein (Aß) and other malformed proteins accumulate in brain aging and neurodegenerative disease, leading progressively to neuronal dysfunction and/or loss. These have long been widely accepted to be drivers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other age-related dementias and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and it has recently become increasingly clear that neuronal protein aggregates are the main driver of 'normal' cognitive aging. To prevent and reverse the course of neurodegenerative disease and age-related cognitive dysfunction, the regenerative engineering solution is therapeutic clearance of extracellular aggregates (such as Aß plaques) and intracellular aggregates (such as soluble, oligomeric Aß). Immunotherapeutic Aß clearance from the brain is a very active field of Alzheimer's research, with at least seven passive, and several second-generation active, Aß vaccines currently in human clinical trials. ... . We now have a published report of preliminary findings from the first Phase I trial in an Aß-targeting vaccine with novel properties, and with the benefit of preliminary findings of outcomes that have only emerged with the experience of its forerunners in previous clinical trials."

Link: http://sens.org/node/2437