Alzheimer's disease

[King Bowzer]

Ok everyone knows amyloid plaques clump up in the brain and interfere with normal functioning of memory, speech, coordination, etc. Solution? Reduce the amyloid plaques, or just prevent their growth entirely. Practical application: an anti-amyloid vaccine. Injecting a little bit of an anti-amyloid vaccine in the body would trigger an immune response targeted at the protein. Then, the next time the body encounters amyloid-beta, the immune system would be prepped to react immediately--before dangerous plaques could form. Simple enough. Does anyone find a problem with this solution?

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by King Bowzer

Ok everyone knows amyloid plaques clump up in the brain and interfere with normal functioning of memory, speech, coordination, etc. Solution? Reduce the amyloid plaques, or just prevent their growth entirely. Practical application: an anti-amyloid vaccine. Injecting a little bit of an anti-amyloid vaccine in the body would trigger an immune response targeted at the protein. Then, the next time the body encounters amyloid-beta, the immune system would be prepped to react immediately--before dangerous plaques could form. Simple enough. Does anyone find a problem with this solution?

Know amyloid plaques have been the root of dementia... but alzheimers is a form of dementia... so theoretically it would seem plausible... but is the direct cause of alzheimers from amyloid plaques?... another words just miscommunication of nerves... is the only way to figure out if someone is truely suffering from alzheimers is actually an autopsy?... might be mistaken on that but I thought I read that somewhere...
But, I would agree that an anti-amyloid vaccine would be benifical... but amyloids are also what speed up information being passed to one nerve to the other... they just get tangled... or too large...
anti-inflammatory amyloid vaccine?
Your thoughts?

-Ghost

[King Bowzer]

Yeah, I'm not altogether sure that Alzheimer's disease is 100% caused by the amyloid plaques. But there is a very strong correlation. I read an article not too long ago where scientists in Japan created a DNA-based vaccine for Alzheimer's in mice. Some DNA that is encoded to produce amyloid-beta peptide is injected into muscle cells. Once the cell is read and translated, an immune response is triggered. And that's it. The difference between this vaccine and the vaccine that failed in the past is this vaccine doesn't cause an inflammation of the brain. Very promising results from experiments indicate that the vaccine is ready to be tested on monkeys, and eventually humans.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by King Bowzer

Yeah, I'm not altogether sure that Alzheimer's disease is 100% caused by the amyloid plaques. But there is a very strong correlation. I read an article not too long ago where scientists in Japan created a DNA-based vaccine for Alzheimer's in mice. Some DNA that is encoded to produce amyloid-beta peptide is injected into muscle cells. Once the cell is read and translated, an immune response is triggered. And that's it. The difference between this vaccine and the vaccine that failed in the past is this vaccine doesn't cause an inflammation of the brain. Very promising results from experiments indicate that the vaccine is ready to be tested on monkeys, and eventually humans.

Interesting find... sounds very promising as well... do you still have a link or the article on hand? Agree that there is a very strong correlation between the amyloid plaques and alzheimers... but if its the direct causation not sure. Too bad the only way to tell if someone was under the disease of alzheimers is an autopsy. Competely agree and understand why the other would cause an inflamotory response to the brain causing probably other serious problems like strokes from the eruption of veins and the like. But if it sounds like is a DNA based its just going to modify the original text of the cell... not distrupting anything that is of great importance. Do you know of what age the article said that would benefit the user? Since its a vacine I would assume it would be in the adolescence stage of the mind... or is it different and should be taken during middle age? Wouldn't say if the person is already suffering from dementia cause that would defeat the purpose and only stop any further damage to the mind. Probably base the vacine distribution on if the disease has had a history in the family or any other type of genetic mind diseases, or is it for ever child at birth?

Originally Posted by Xx CRaZeee xX

What's all this?
Where am I?
How'd I get here?

Testing on monkeys? That's disgusting.

If testing on monkeys make them better pretty...



-Ghost

[King Bowzer]

Oh, sorry for not responding for a while. Yeah, I have a link to the article. Here's a whole bunch of them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5071036.stm
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/HealthScout/060612/6061206U.html
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/536167
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn9***.html
And here's an article about the vaccine that failed:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1996.html

As you can see, yes, the vaccine (as with any prophylactic) would have to be administered before Alzheimer's kicks in to be most effective. However, the experiments have shown success in decreasing the depositions of plaques in mice when the vaccine was administered after the plaques have already formed. Enough to the point where normal brain functioning was restored. And without side effects. But who knows for sure with humans? Only time will tell.