Reduce protein deposition and improve cognition, scientists discover new immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, and there is currently no cure

The study was published as a cover article in the journal Brain.

One of the pathological signs of the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease is neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) formed by abnormal aggregation of tau protein.

In the human innate immune system, the response of immune cells becomes sluggish as the person ages, and thus cannot effectively remove toxins and protein fragments that cause neurodegeneration

However, previous attempts to target the immune system have all failed because drugs overstimulated the immune system, causing inflammation and killing brain cells

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a class of innate immune regulatory factors

However, the failure rate of clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease is very high, so researchers first set their sights on non-human primates that are more similar to the human structure

The experimental results showed that compared with the control group, the β-amyloid deposits in the brains of the old squirrel monkeys in the experimental group were reduced by 59%! And the level of toxic tau protein in the brain of animals has also decreased

Akash Patel, the first author of the paper, said: "Current research supports that this therapy is an effective way to control the natural immune system and slow down neurodegeneration

However, in a strict sense, this study only evaluated older monkeys that have shown obvious signs of neurodegeneration.

In the next step, the research team plans to test CpG ODN therapy on human patients with mild cognitive impairment or in the early stages of dementia

Reference materials:

[1] Patel, AG, et, al.

[2] Immunomodulatory Treatment Halts Alzheimer's Disease Progression, Improves Cognition in Primates.