An exciting new vaccine has been found to be promising in preventing plaque formation in mice, one of the major causes of Alzheimer’s disease. These plaques are known as amyloid protein plaques. This novel form of a vaccine would be a preventative treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, stopping it before it ever began.

The vaccine works to stimulate the immune system to see the plaques as foreign to the body, and the immune system then attacks and destroys the plaques.

What is even more exciting about this vaccine is that it was found to have no side effects in the mice, unlike a previous vaccine the same research group had been working on. The previous vaccine was found to potentially cause swelling or inflammation of the brain. But, this newer vaccine works in a different way, and the preliminary studies in mice have shown none of the previous side effects.

More research is being done to see if this can be taken forward into humans. Let’s hope so!

You can check out the original journal article:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jun 20;103(25):9619-24. Epub 2006 Jun 12
Nonviral Abeta DNA vaccine therapy against Alzheimer's disease: long-term effects and safety.
Okura Y, Miyakoshi A, Kohyama K, Park IK, Staufenbiel M, Matsumoto Y.

or a BBC article written on it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5071036.stm