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Scientists have made progress on a cure for Alzheimer's:
Experts at Adelaide's Flinders University have made an Alzheimer's breakthrough that may result in world's first dementia vaccine. Developed by Australian and US scientists, this vaccine may not only prevent but also reverse early stages of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.
The Alzheimer's vaccine may be tested on humans within the next two to three years after being bankrolled by the US Government. Scientists from Flinders University and America's Institute of Molecular Medicine and University of California developed the vaccine by targeting proteins in the brain that block neurons.
The formula targets tau proteins and abnormal beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer's. The scientists are confident that the vaccine would eventually be used as preventative vaccine. According to Flinders University medicine professor Nikolai Petrovsky, the proteins must be removed from the brain as Alzheimer's, and dementia sufferers have lots of these broken down proteins inside.
Alzheimer's disease AdvaxCpG- adjuvanted MultiTEP-based dual and single vaccines induce high-titer antibodies against various forms of tau and Aβ pathological molecules (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep28912)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Friday July 15 2016, @07:08PM
From summary:
The formula targets tau proteins and abnormal beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer's. The scientists are confident that the vaccine would eventually be used as preventative vaccine
In contrast:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alzheimers-gene-affects-early-brain-development-study-suggests-1468440000 [wsj.com]
Research on Alzheimer’s has largely focused on the characteristic proteins that build up in the brain in old age, but experimental drugs meant to target those symptoms have been disappointing. One relatively new theory is that the mind-robbing disease is actually a developmental disorder that begins much earlier in life.
The team found that in some people with at least one copy of the so-called e4 variant—the version most associated with heightened Alzheimer’s risk—the size of the hippocampus was significantly smaller than in other young people in the study. The hippocampus is the seahorse-shaped brain region involved in memory formation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 15 2016, @07:19PM
Spot on.
1) Amyloids consist of aggregates of proteins folded into beta-sheets.
2) These aggregates of beta-sheets are some of the most energetically favorable structures for proteins/peptides (chains of amino acids) to form.
3) From #2 we can deduce that the formation of these amyloids is something expected to happen when any of a number of processes constantly working to prevent/remove them becomes defective.
4) Therefore, mounting an immune response to amyloids will amounts to adding inflammatory activity to already malfunctioning tissue. There is no hope of helping repair that tissue or resolve the underlying issue (unless you call just killing the malfunctioning cells outright to be a solution). A vaccine towards amyloids makes no sense at all.
For all we know amyloid-Beta is a symptom not a cause. It may even be protective. The idea they may randomly stumble upon a "cure" by flailing around like this is ridiculous.