More Progress Towards Alzheimer’s Vaccines

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EurekAlert! reports on another promising Alzheimer's vaccine in the works: "Vaccinated mice generated an immune response to the protein known as amyloid-beta peptide, which accumulates in what are called 'amyloid plaques' in brains of people with Alzheimer's. The vaccinated mice demonstrated normal learning skills and functioning memory in spite of being genetically designed to develop an aggressive form of the disease. ... vaccinated mice not only performed better, we found no evidence of signature amyloid plaque in their brains ... The mice [also] harbored a mutation that causes the tau-related tangle pathology ... What we found exciting was that by targeting one pathology of Alzheimer's - amyloid beta - we were able to also prevent the transition of tau from its normal form to a form found in the disease state ... due to the number of studies required to satisfy regulatory requirements, it could be three or more years before human trials testing this type of Alzheimer's vaccine occur."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/uorm-vti051908.php