Key brain discovery could revolutionize Alzheimers treatment: Rare opportunity

Scientists have long been racking their brains for ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia.Turns out that the answer may lie within our own brains.Researchers from Northwestern University suggest that enhancing the brain’s immune cells may better equip them to clear out harmful clumps of the toxic protein amyloid beta, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.“Our study is highly novel because we had the rare opportunity to analyze one of the largest post-mortem brain cohorts of Alzheimer’s patients treated with amyloid-targeting drugs — similar to those now approved by the FDA for Alzheimer’s disease,” lead author Lynn van Olst said.The researchers examined 13 brains vaccinated with amyloid beta, six brains with Alzheimer’s that had not received that treatment and six disease-free brains.Amyloid beta is a small protein fragment that forms plaque-like deposits when it accumulates abnormally in the brain.

Vaccination is supposed to trigger the immune system to produce antibodies to remove the plaques.But clinical trials of amyloid beta vaccines for Alzheimer’s have repeatedly failed.Dangerous brain swelling has been a major side effect.The challenge for vaccine developers is to create an immune response that can combat amyloid beta without attacking healthy cells. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a few antibody treatments for Alzheimer’s that target amyloid beta.

They are given as intravenous infusions.“These drugs stimulate the immune cells of the brain to remove amyloid beta, but we believe that the data in our publication can be utilized to make these drugs work even better,” said corresponding study author David Gate, a Northwestern assistant professor of neurology.The Northwestern team found that when these types of treatments work, the brain’s immune cells — known as microglia — clear plaques and help restore a healthier brain environment.Of the 13 vaccinated brains, seven had high levels of plaqu...