An emerging study tackles a possible vaccine that fights against the tau protein present in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. It will reportedly target the tangles found in their brains, which cause the memory loss.
Alzheimer's disease is a result of coiling in the brain's transport system. These tangles prohibit movements of nutrients toward the cells, thus killing them eventually. With the new vaccine developed, it can allegedly target and kill the proteins found on these tangles. Killing or weakening these knots can potentially result to slower disease progression.
While most of the treatments of Alzheimer's focus on relieving the symptoms, only a handful actually targets on stopping its development. Hence, scientists from the Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE) are aiming to make this new drug as a vaccine, which will prevent the accumulation of these tau tangles.
Director of RICE Roy Jones admitted that the new study paves way to introduce a different kind of approach towards Alzheimer's. And they are searching for more volunteers. The current study is on its early phase of clinical trial and is being conducted in Bath, Liverpool and Finland.
On the other hand, RICE is also pioneering another vaccine that aims the amyloid plaques, which are protein deposits found in the brains of Alzheimer patients. But unlike tangles, these plaques are not strongly connected with memory loss and are only effective on early stage of the disease.
Of note, Alzheimer's Society research head Dr. James Pickett admitted that even though this vaccine attempt is successful, it will still take several years to determine if this has really improved the lives of patients with Alzheimer's. "With an ageing population and no new dementia drugs in over a decade, the need to find new treatments is more urgent than ever. We need more people to come forward to get involved with scientific studies," he said.
