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November 27, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"New Hope for Alzheimer Disease Vaccine"

Nature Medicine (www.nature.com/nm) (11/02) Vol. 8, No. 11, P. 1195; Haass, Christian

A new vaccination technique has been proposed for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease, by which a vaccine targets the amyloid beta peptide, a substance produced naturally by the body and appearing in greater quantities in Alzheimer's disease patients. Specifically, the vaccine works to break up amyloid plaques, where the peptides group together, as it has been shown that amyloid aggregates, the precursors to plaques, likely impair neuronal function.  The development of an amyloid vaccine was surprisingly simple.  Scientists injected aggregated amyloid beta into patients' bloodstream, where antibodies against the aggregates were created by their immune systems.  In animal models, the vaccine worked well, with amyloid beta antibodies crossing the blood-brain barrier to attack amyloid plaques and break them up.  In Phase II human clinical trials, however, a number of patients developed post-vaccination syndrome, a typical result of experimental vaccines, experiencing meningoencephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.  Though the trials were stopped because of the side effect, patients showed high titers of anti-amyloid antibodies that only reacted to amyloid beta, not other peptides that are found throughout the body and are vital to normal function.

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