As the first human trial begins, David Cox meets the scientists who say prevention, not cure, may be the answer
At Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Tanuja Chitnis is preparing to begin a clinical trial later this month, which represents a landmark moment in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Chitnis, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, is leading the first ever investigation in human patients to test whether a vaccine can prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. It works by clearing toxic forms of a protein called beta-amyloid which accumulates in the brain over many years. These eventually form plaques which disrupt normal brain function and lead to memory loss and confusion.
This is not a vaccine in its most conventional sense. While influenza and Covid-19 vaccines aim to prevent individuals from getting infected in the first place, the Alzheimer’s vaccine looks to mobilise the brain’s immune cells, called microglia, against these forms of amyloid. It is hoped that by doing so in patients in the very early stages of the disease, before too much damage has been done, it can be stopped in its tracks.
“The term vaccine is broad, and generally means utilising the immune system to combat disease,” explains Chitnis. “Here, we are activating a population of immune cells to clear beta-amyloid plaques.”
🧠 Alzheimer's Vaccine:
"The success of the trial – which will see 16 participants with early Alzheimer’s, aged between 60 and 85, receive two doses of the vaccine – will determine whether this approach offers a new frontier in treating the disease."https://t.co/UlrTuieuwn
— HumanProgress.org (@HumanProgress) November 23, 2021