Alzheimer’s vaccine at age 40
Scientists are looking to developing a vaccine that could be given to people at risk of Alzheimer’s from when they are aged 40, ahead of when symptoms typically begin to appear.
The vaccine will reportedly work by wiping out plaques that stop brain signals in Alzheimer's patients.
James Nicoll, professor of neuropathology at Southampton University in the UK, found by giving people an injection, that small amounts of amyloid-beta protein – found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's – could kick the immune system into gear to fight the condition before it begins.
Mr Nicoll found that giving people with Alzheimer's disease the injection didn't alter their symptoms, but he hopes giving it to younger people aged between 40 and 50 could prevent the condition's development.
“We do know that people aren’t affected by Alzheimer's until later in life but it takes a good 20 years for the disease to emerge, so we would probably want to start vaccinating people in their 50s or 40s,” Professor Nicoll said at the Cheltenham Science Festival.
“It’s possible that the amyloid-beta accumulation causes a cascade of things which you can’t reverse. But could we vaccinate before that started? For me that is the most interesting and exciting question. It could prevent the accumulation in the first place.”
