Vaccination therapy for Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Since AN-1792 vaccine induced autoimmune encephalitis, several pharmaceutical companies are now concentrated in developing antibody therapy in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Each antibody has own characteristics. Thus, it is unpredictable at present which antibody is the most beneficial until we see the result of clinical trials. If disease modifying antibodies were found, they will be widely used for treatment of AD in near future. As a candidate of such antibodies, we have developed TAPIR-like antibody with much higher affinity to Aβ42 than Aβ40, and it effectively deleted senile plaque amyloid and Aβ oligomers without increasing microhemorrhages. Although passive immunization can avoid autoimmune encephalitis, it is expensive and it is not suitable for prevention. Thus, safe vaccines by active immunization would be better. Vaccines that induce Th2 type immune responses such as oral vaccine or per-nasal vaccine would be promising.