A University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center team says they’ve produced an experimental vaccine to reduce chances and/or symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.
According to Men’s Health, researchers found a way to slow down two proteins (the beta-amyloid and tau proteins) from building up in the brain. Patients with Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia, have an unhealthy buildup of these two proteins in the brain that impedes function. The study, performed on mice, showed a 40% reduction in the beta-amyloid protein while the tau protein saw a decrease of 50%. The vaccine could potentially delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years and reduce the number of people impacted by half.
“This study is the culmination of a decade of research that has repeatedly demonstrated that this vaccine can effectively and safely target in animal models what we think may cause Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Dr. Roger Rosenberg, co-author of the study and professor of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, “I believe we’re getting close to testing this therapy in people.”
Human trials are still on the back burner. Testing in mice doesn’t always reveal the full picture, so trials in monkeys seems like the logical next step before the vaccine moves on to human participants. It could be a decade before we see the vaccine on shelves.
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