Basic research and vaccine development for Alzheimer's disease

Posted by Well carlota on November 5th, 2019

In recent years, the highly regarded research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been very remarkable. Especially since the middle of the 20th century, due to the rapid development of neuropathology, neurochemistry, molecular biology and molecular genetics, it is clear that the essence of Alzheimer's disease is β amyloid protein related to genetic factors and environmental factors. And abnormally phosphorylated tau protein is deposited in the brain, causing neuronal degeneration and abnormal neurotransmitters. Based on these findings, although therapeutic drugs have been developed to delay the deterioration of the symptoms caused by this, at the present stage, there is still no scope for symptomatic treatment. Therefore, on the basis of understanding the patient's psychology, it is necessary to establish countermeasures to cope with the surrounding. However, due to the acquisition of new knowledge in recent years, we are also looking forward to the development of curative drugs in the future.

In Japan, which is a society of the elderly, it is undoubted that the medical and welfare measures of the demented elderly are the most important issues in the society. Previously, Japanese cerebrovascular dementia was once a representative of various dementias, but recent epidemiological surveys have shown that Alzheimer's disease has the same or higher incidence than cerebrovascular dementia. In addition, there are many diseases that cause dementia. Among them, the so-called treatable dementia, which is an improvement in dementia symptoms by early treatment (not missing), is a clinically important problem. The number of AD patients in this process is also very large, and the cause is unknown, and there is no definitive treatment. However, recent basic research on AD has made amazing progress, and people expect greater development in the future.

The development of Alzheimer’s vaccine primarily aims at two targets, amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau protein. Their accumulation during Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression can cause neuronal damage. Therefore, researchers hope that the immune system is able to recognize the antigenic characteristics of the two proteins and produce antibodies against them.

β-amyloid immunotherapy Alzheimer's type senile dementia is a new research field launched in recent years. In Alzheimer's disease transgenic animals, β-amyloid immunotherapy can inhibit and improve pathological damage in the brain. Although the β-amyloid vaccine found cases of symptoms of encephalitis in a phase II clinical trial, the brains of these patients did have a reduction in age spots. Further research has partially revealed the mechanism by which β-amyloid immunotherapy can eliminate senile plaques of β-amyloid in the brain and the causes of side effects. These studies not only lay the foundation for the future return of β-amyloid immunotherapy to the clinic, but also provide new ideas for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases.