Immune therapy against Alzheimer’s disease

'There has been a lot of excitement over recent years about the possibility that anti-bodies against a protein called beta-amyloid, which is deposited in the brain as a core part of the pathology and develops in people with Alzheimer's disease, may be an effective treatment.

This led to the development of the 'Alzheimer's disease vaccine', which has begun to be tested in clinical trials on mice and humans. The vaccine does seem to clear the beta-amyloid from the brain, but unfortunately in the clinical trial focussing on people with Alzheimer's disease a substantial minority of participants developed encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), which has temporarily put a halt to further trials whilst the vaccine is refined.

There are two main pathologies in the brain of people with Alzheimer's disease, plaques (with beta-amyloid protein) and tangles. Dr LeFerla's work is unique because this is the first study to look at a treatment using antibodies to beta-amyloid in special 'transgenic' mice, which carry two human gene mutations that mean they develop plaques and tangles in the brain, as they get older. Importantly this suggests that this type of 'vaccine' treatment approach, in addition to clearing beta-amyloid from the brain, can prevent the development of tangles. This is very exciting and further emphasises the enormous potential of this type of approach if the difficulties of brain inflammation can be overcome.'

Professor Clive Ballard
Director of research