After successful animal experiments, scientists may be on the verge of developing an Alzheimer's disease vaccine.
In animal models of Alzheimer's disease, the study found that both an antibody-based therapy and a protein-based vaccine created by the team lowered symptoms.
Researchers from the United States and Germany were successful in reversing memory loss in mice, and they are eager to move forward with human trials as soon as possible.
Both products target a distinct version of the protein, which is thought to be particularly hazardous, rather than the amyloid beta protein in plaques in the brain, which is frequently associated with Alzheimer's disease.
The vaccination prepares the immune system to attack a form of sticky amyloid beta protein in the brain that builds up in dementia patients and prevents neurons from communicating.
Amyloid beta protein is found in solution as highly flexible string-like molecules that can connect to create fibres and plaques.
Previous Alzheimer's medications have likewise focused on lowering amyloid, but they have had little success in reducing symptoms, and some have even caused significant side effects.
Scientists have discovered that in dementia patients, the protein folds into a hairpin-like structure, transforming into a far more deadly form of amyloid.
Researchers from the University of Leicester, the University Medical Centre Gottingen, and the medical research organization LifeArc collaborated on the project.
"In clinical trials, none of the prospective medicines that remove amyloid plaques in the brain have shown any efficacy in terms of lowering Alzheimer's symptoms," Professor Thomas Bayer of the University Medical Centre Gottingen, said.
"In mice, we discovered an antibody that neutralized shortened versions of soluble amyloid beta but did not bind to regular forms of the protein or plaques," Bayer added.
"This structure had never been seen before in amyloid beta," Professor Mark Carr of the University of Leicester's Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology said.
"We thought this modified form of amyloid beta could be utilized as a vaccination to get people's immune systems to manufacture TAP01 04 type antibodies," Carr explained.
The researchers hypothesized that modifying amyloid into the same hairpin shape before using it as a vaccine would prompt the body to produce antibodies to attack that specific structure.
The vaccine-elicited antibodies in mice, which helped to restore neuron function, boost glucose metabolism in the brain, reverse memory loss, and limit the production of amyloid beta plaques.
Alzheimer's disease affects more than 520,000 people in the United Kingdom, and the number is expected to climb.
