The 1st ever dementia vaccine could be trialled in humans within Three years

Scientists effective in the US and Australia have made progress on a vaccine candidate that could avert and, in some cases, even reverse, the onset of dementia, Alzheimer's, and other linked diseases.

This could be a large deal in the treatment of these diseases, seeing as the latest drug is able to specifically object the tau proteins and abnormal beta-amyloid that can construct up and cause Alzheimer's.

Even better, it could be prepared for human trials in as little as two to 3 years, according to researcher Nikolai Petrovsky from Flinders University in Australia.

"If we are winning in preclinical trials, in three to 5-years we could be well on the way to one of the majority important developments in latest medical history," he said.

Petrovsky told 891 ABC that the antibodies in the vaccine applicant work like tow trucks turning up to remove proteins damaged by disease. Two separate possible vaccines, one for beta-amyloid and one for tau proteins, have been joint to form the latest treatment.

The second tau vaccine candidate is the majority recent to be exposed and is the most effective at reversing damage in the brain. The beta-amyloid one works top if it's given as a preventative measure for those at risk of dementia.

Combined, the 2 drugs are even more effective, based on latest tests carried out on groups of mice.

To put it one more way, one part of the new vaccine focusses on what triggers Alzheimer's, and the other focusses on what make it get worse.

It could be used together to give people at a particular age, say 50 years of age when they are completely fine, to discontinue them developing dementia, but potentially as well could be given to people at slightest in the early stages of dementia to actually try and reverse the process," explain Petrovsky.

Each year, 7.5 million new cases of Alzheimer's are diagnosed approximately the world, and with an ageing inhabitants and an increase in type 2 diabetes (a major risk factor for Alzheimer's) in western societies, the view is gloomy. Alzheimer's is the majority common cause of dementia in the elderly.

While hundreds of compounds have been experienced for their ability to stop dementia in latest years, only around 0.5 percent of these have been accepted to help and lessen the effects of the disease.

That's not a great victory rate, and to help get it up, a state-of-the-art universal vaccine platform called MultiTEP has been put together to more efficiently goal the proteins that cause these types of problems in the brain.

Scientists from Flinders University worked in company with the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in the US on the latest formula.

Not only do MultiTEP-designed antibodies bind strongly to their target, they also avoid creating potentially harmful response from the body's immune system, according to the IMM's Michael Agadjanyan.

While we don't be acquainted with yet if the drugs will be effective in humans – and it will be several years before we do – there's a lot of excitement over the possible for a vaccine that could stop a fast growinghealth difficulty in its tracks.