In a test, a vaccine has cleared the brain protein tangles and build-ups that characterize Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers at the University of California and the Institute for Molecular Medicine genetically engineered mice to develop the tau protein tangles and amyloid protein build-ups that accumulate among brain cells that mark the illness.
Previous vaccines had targeted one protein or the other. But new research indicates that Alzheimer’s symptoms crop up when accumulations of the two proteins interact.
The researchers paired two vaccines, each one shown to be effective against one or the other protein culprit. Then they combined the pair with a compound that made tissues more receptive to them.
In tests, the cocktail not only removed problem proteins that had accumulated but also prevented them from building up in the brains of mice engineered to develop them.
The vaccine could be in human trials as soon as 2022.
TRENDPOST: Alzheimer’s research is shifting from treatment to prevention after the repeated failures of several promising therapies. The new compound could achieve both aspects and turn Alzheimer’s into a curable and also preventable illness.
