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June 12, 2006 -- A "gentle and quiet" DNA vaccine stops Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease in lab mice, a new study shows.
It's not the first time a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease has worked in mice. In 2002, clinical trials of one such vaccine had to be stopped when it caused severe brain inflammation in 6% of patients.
Although this severe side effect meant this vaccine had to be scrapped, there was good news. In some patients, the vaccine significantly reduced the brain plaque that is the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
Might there be a way to get this good effect without the deadly side effect?
Yes, say Yoshio Okura, Yoh Matsumoto, and colleagues at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience.
The researchers developed a "naked DNA" vaccine. It's made of DNA that codes for the same piece of beta amyloid plaque used in the earlier vaccine. But instead of provoking a system-wide immune response against amyloid, the researchers designed the DNA vaccine to elicit "gentle and quiet immune reactions."
It works -- in mice bred to get Alzheimer's disease. Whether given before or after plaque formed in the brains of the mice, vaccine-treated animals had only 40% to 50% as much brain plaque as untreated mice.
None of the mice was harmed by the vaccine.
The vaccine is "promising as a vaccine therapy against human Alzheimer's disease," Okura and colleagues conclude.
The findings appear in the June 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
SOURCE: Okura, Y. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 20, 2006; vol: 103 pp. 9619-9624.