Antibody breakthrough in mice could lead to a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, impacting roughly 44 million people worldwide. In some nations, those numbers could triple in the next fifty years, and scientists are desperately trying to find ways to protect our aging populations. Now, a novel method for treatment has been shown to successfully immunize mice against animal models of AD. We still don’t know if the approach can be used to vaccinate humans against the disease, but the results look promising compared to other attempts. The authors are now calling for commercial partners to help them take the research further. “While the science is currently still at an early stage, if these results were to be replicated in human clinical trials, then it could be transformative,” says drug researcher Mark Carr from the University of Leicester in the UK. “It opens up the possibility to not only treat Alzheimer’s once symptoms are detected, but also to...