New Findings on Alzheimer's Vaccine and Vascular Amyloid

Abstract

The inflammatory response to the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), once considered a likely cause of tissue damage in Alzheimer's disease (AD), appeared to have therapeutic potential when scientists from Elan Pharmaceuticals showed that transgenic mice immunized with Aβ were protected from formation of amyloid plaques ( Nature 1999; 400:173). A subsequent human vaccine trial was suspended, however, when a subset of treated patients developed meningoencephalitis. In the current study, researchers examined the effects of anti-Aβ immunization in transgenic mice …