An Alzheimer's vaccine?
If these plans come to fruition, doctors will have the opportunity to stop the development of Alzheimer's disease even before it has caused irreversible damage to brain tissues.
The first version of the new vaccine was recently tested on genetically engineered mice with a tendency to accumulate large amounts of abnormal beta-amyloids. They were infected with a neutralized herpes virus, in which two therapeutic genes were embedded. One of them was responsible for the synthesis of beta-amyloids themselves, and the second forced the body to intensively produce the signal protein interleukin-4, which plays an important role in stimulating the immune system. Scientists hoped that a virus with these genes would trigger a strong immune response aimed at destroying protein neurotoxins.
Apparently, so far this experiment is yielding positive results. Scientists have been monitoring for ten months how vaccinated mice pass standard tests to find a way out of the maze. These observations showed that their memory and learning ability practically do not differ from the corresponding indicators of mice with normal heredity. Microscopic examination of sections of brain tissues of experimental animals did not reveal beta-amyloid plaques, which are present in excess in unvaccinated transgenic mice. This information is contained in an article published in the May issue of the journal Molecular Therapy.
Of course, this is just the beginning. Most likely, the researchers from the Bowers group will still have to spend a lot of effort to improve the vaccine and prove its harmlessness. They hope that all this will be done and that the vaccine will be ready for clinical trials in three to four years.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru26.05.2008