An experimental vaccine could prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome: early human tests have shown that it has no safety concerns and is able to stimulate an immune response against a key protein in the disease .
The results come from a trial coordinated by the University of Southern California at San Diego and the results of which have been published in JAMA Neurology.
The link between Alzheimer’s and Down’s syndrome
People with Down syndrome have a particular predisposition to develop Alzheimer’s: the main constituent of the plaques characteristic of the disease (the beta amyloid peptide) derives in fact from a protein that originates right on chromosome 21, which is present with a copy in excess in Down syndrome. For this reason, the researchers write, “the lifetime risk of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome is about 90%.”
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I study
The study tested the effectiveness of a vaccine containing a portion of beta amyloid peptide and capable of stimulating an immune response against this substance on 12 people. Tests carried out up to almost two years after the administration of the vaccine showed that the product has no particular side effects; in addition, 4 of the 12 patients began producing specific antibodies against beta-amyloid, a first indication of the vaccine‘s effectiveness.
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The role of antibodies
The study is a phase 1 trial, the first of three steps leading to the definitive verification of the efficacy of a drug or vaccine. Furthermore, it is currently not known whether the production of antibodies corresponds to an effective contrast of the disease. However, according to the researchers, these data provide prerequisites for continuing vaccine development.