Why a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease will probably not be approved anytime soon



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Ignore the headlines that promise a vaccine against Alzheimer's in the near future.

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New research has studied an effective vaccine in mice, not in humans. Getty Images

Nearly 6 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible brain disease that causes memory loss and cognitive impairment.

With the increase in the number of elderly Americans over the next few decades, the number of Alzheimer's cases is expected to skyrocket.

The Alzheimer's Association estimates that by 2050, nearly 14 million Americans will be living with Alzheimer's disease.

At present, there is no curative treatment or treatment option to address the cognitive impairment caused by Alzheimer's disease.

It's perhaps why the first research on a potential vaccine has attracted so much media attention earlier this week. Researchers at the University of New Mexico are working to develop a vaccine that can prevent Alzheimer's disease.

The vaccine, recently tested in mice, has eliminated protein entanglements in the brain that can cause Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published in the journalNPJ vaccinesearly June.

Although these discoveries offer hope, it is far too early to know if and how the vaccine will work on humans.

After all, mice are a little different from people.

According to health experts, it will take years, even decades, before a vaccine is ready for humans.

And that's if the vaccine actually works.

In the past, many drug candidates to treat Alzheimer's disease seemed promising at the beginning of the research, but proved ineffective in large-scale trials.

"Although this research is promising, it is too early to be moved. Any human benefit from this vaccine will be at best in many years, "Dr. Alex Mroszczyk-McDonald, a family physician at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, told Healthline.

It takes many steps and difficulties to get a vaccine approved and it often takes decades to make it safe and effective, he added.

At present, there is no medicine to cure or slow down Alzheimer's disease, although some treat its symptoms.

The vaccine candidate has been designed to target a specific type of protein, called pathological tau, found in large numbers in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

Although tau protein is present in all brains, protein accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and could cause cognitive decline.

"Tau protein is present in normal and healthy brain cells, but in Alzheimer's disease, the protein accumulates abnormally in" tangles "that interfere with brain signaling and communication," explains the Dr. Verna R. Porter, neurologist and director of Alzheimer's disease. program at the Providence Saint John Health Center.

The research team discovered that when the vaccine was administered to the mice, their body developed antibodies that eliminated the abnormal tau protein from the part of the brain associated with learning and memory.

The mice were then put to the test in several labyrinth-style puzzles. Rodents who received the vaccine performed better than those who did not receive it.

The improvements lasted for months, the researchers reported.

Although the vaccine worked very well in mice, it is important to remember that the success of a mouse test does not mean that it will help humans.

"In the development of Alzheimer's drugs, what we see in an animal is interesting, but we know that it can not necessarily be replicated in humans," said Dr. Marwan Sabbagh, director of the health center Lou Ruvo from the Cleveland Clinic.

According to Porter, the exact underlying pathology of Alzheimer's disease remains controversial.

Some scientists believe that the accumulation of tau protein is to blame, while others think that another mechanism – such as inflammation – is at stake.

"Despite considerable progress, it has not yet been possible to fully understand the pathology of this disease," Porter said.

Health experts agree that much more research is needed to better understand the disease in order to develop a safe and effective treatment.

If tau is in fact the cause of Alzheimer's disease, scientists will also need to determine how to transmit the vaccine to the population before significant cognitive impairment occurs, which may well be irreversible.

Scientists are currently working on identifying early diagnostic biomarkers for the disease, Porter said.

"We think that Alzheimer's disease is a much more complex disease than originally thought. This makes it more complex to develop an effective vaccine in humans, "Porter said.

This is not the first Alzheimer's vaccine developed.

In fact, many scientists have been trying to create vaccines specifically targeting tau tangles in recent years, according to Dr. Peter Davies, director of the Litwin-Zucker Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders in the Feinstein Institutes and member of the Alzheimer's Foundation. Advisory Committee on Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening of the United States.

Two of the vaccines are in the early stages of clinical trials in humans.

Other patients had to be canceled because they were causing dangerous side effects, such as swelling of the brain, in patients.

"Many people think that in this area, active vaccines may be too risky and that giving antibodies instead of trying to persuade them to make antibodies is much safer," Davies said.

It will be years before we have a vaccine for humans

The research team at the University of New Mexico plans to raise funds to create a vaccine that can be tested and used, hopefully, for therapeutic purposes in humans.

The process can cost millions of dollars and take decades, according to the University of New Mexico.

Still, any new drug development is exciting, says Sabbagh, and the study's findings indicate that the vaccine definitely deserves to be explored.

Researchers at the University of New Mexico are working to develop a vaccine to prevent Alzheimer's disease. Although the vaccine has been successful in improving symptoms in mice, it is far too early to tell if and how the treatment will help humans.

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