The Alzheimer's vaccine

Newly published data shows that vaccination with beta amyloid peptides can reduce behavioral defects, including memory and learning problems, in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. However, despite a clear link between beta amyloid and AD symptoms in mice, it is not yet clear how beta amyloid vaccines such as Elan Corp. plc's Betabloc will affect the disease in humans, including populations with different genetic risk factors for AD.

In Nature, researchers from the University of South Florida (Tampa, Fla.) and the University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario) and colleagues separately published that beta amyloid peptide vaccines reduced neurological deficits, including cognitive dysfunction and learning and age-related memory deficits, in mice (see B15). Both groups used the 42 amino acid bet amyloid peptide as a vaccine; ELN's Betabloc (AN-1792) uses that same peptide...