New Vaccine Battles Proteins Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
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Scientists have successfully used a vaccine to suppress strings of the pathological form of tau protein thought to form "tangles" in the brain, leading to Alzheimer's disease. The vaccine encourages the immune system to battle these tangles by introducing fragments of this harmful, irregular tau, triggering the creation of antibodies that later promote the breakdown of irregular tau tangles in the brain.
Currently, the vaccine has only been used on mice genetically engineered to produce abnormal tau proteins early in life. At five and eight months, mice from this group who had been immunized with the vaccine performed better at behavioral tests and showed fewer tau tangles in their brains than those who who had not been immunized. ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy Targeting Pathological Tau Conformers in a Tangle Mouse Model Reduces Brain Pathology with Associated Functional Improvements SHARE:
Posted In: Alzheimer's Disease | Aging - Geriatric Psychology | Tags: Disease | Vaccine | Tau | Protein | Alzheimer's | Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff on August 23, 2007 at 09:11 AM | Permalink |
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