Groundbreaking Alzheimer's Vaccine...
Added On : 9th June 2012
Groundbreaking Alzheimer's Vaccine could Cut Cases by Half and be First Step Towards Finding CureA groundbreaking vaccine that could cut cases of Alzheimer's disease by half has been discovered.
The jab developed by scientists in Sweden could delay the onset of the debilitating illness and be the first step towards finding a cure.
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and attacks nerves, brain cells and neurotransmitters that carry messages to and from the brain.
The vaccine, known as CAD10, helps patients create protective antibodies to defend against deposits that develop in the brain of sufferers.
Researchers from Karolinska Institute in Sweden and from the Swedish Brain Power Network claimed in the Lancet Neurology journal that their discovery could help people with mild to moderate versions of Alzheimer's.
They found no serious side effects during the tests, which took place over three years on people aged between 50 and 80.
One in 14 people over 65 years old is affected by the disease, according to the Alzheimers Society.
The risks increase with age, with around one in six people over 80 years old developing the condition.
Scientists hope CAD106 can delay the onset of Alzheimers disease by five years.
According to the World Health Organisation, dementia is currently the fastest growing global health epidemic. In the UK, 820,000 people have a form of dementia with more than half suffering from Alzheimers. The figure is set to rise to a million in less than 10 years.
PERFECT STORM
Alzheimer's may be caused by a 'perfect storm' of minor gene alterations, new research shows.
A number of inactive or over-active genes - rather than individual severe mutations - may be the origin of neurodegenerative disorders, according to a report in journal PLoS Genetics.
Every healthy person has gene varients which express themselves in slightly different ways.
On their own they have a modest effect, but taken together can lead to problems, said Dr Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, of Florida's Mayo clinic.
She added: 'If we can identify the genes linked to a disease that are too active or too dormant, we might be able to define new drug targets and therapies.'
Dr Simon Ridley, Head of Research at Alzheimers Research UK, said: 'Already half a million people in the UK are living with Alzheimers disease, and we urgently need new treatments that can offer hope for the future.
'For the best chance of success, we need to see many more treatments being trialled in this way, and that means a huge investment in research.
'Long-term, larger scale trials of CAD106 will determine whether it can help peoples memory and thinking skills, as well as reducing the amount of amyloid in the brain.
'Amyloid begins to build in the brain long before symptoms of Alzheimers appear, and its likely that any new treatment will be most effective when given in the early stages of the disease.'
The researchers found 74 per cent of the people taking CAD106 had increased levels of antibodies in their blood after having the vaccine, suggesting that the vaccine had triggered their immunity.
The authors called it a 'promising option in the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimers disease.'
In an accompanying article, Thomas Wisniewski from the New York School of Medicine wrote: 'Development of an immunotherapy that can delay Alzheimers disease onset by five years would reduce the prevalence of the disease by half.
'This new vaccine comes as a promising addition to what will probably be a long road to the ultimate successful immunotherapy.'
Emma Reynolds - MailOnline
