Title:Emerging Promise of Immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s Disease: A New Hope for the Development of Alzheimer’s Vaccine
Volume: 20
Issue: 13
Author(s): Md. Tanvir Kabir, Md. Sahab Uddin*, Bijo Mathew, Pankoj Kumar Das, Asma Perveen and Ghulam Md. Ashraf*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University, Dhaka,Bangladesh
- King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah,Saudi Arabia
Keywords:
Alzheimer's disease, Amyloid-beta, Vaccine, Immunotherapy, Immunity, Dementia.
Abstract:
Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder and the characteristics
of this devastating disorder include the progressive and disabling deficits in the cognitive
functions including reasoning, attention, judgment, comprehension, memory, and language.
Objective: In this article, we have focused on the recent progress that has been achieved in the development
of an effective AD vaccine.
Summary: Currently, available treatment options of AD are limited to deliver short-term symptomatic
relief only. A number of strategies targeting amyloid-beta (Aβ) have been developed in order to treat or
prevent AD. In order to exert an effective immune response, an AD vaccine should contain adjuvants
that can induce an effective anti-inflammatory T helper 2 (Th2) immune response. AD vaccines should
also possess the immunogens which have the capacity to stimulate a protective immune response against
various cytotoxic Aβ conformers. The induction of an effective vaccine’s immune response would necessitate
the parallel delivery of immunogen to dendritic cells (DCs) and their priming to stimulate a
Th2-polarized response. The aforesaid immune response is likely to mediate the generation of neutralizing
antibodies against the neurotoxic Aβ oligomers (AβOs) and also anti-inflammatory cytokines, thus
preventing the AD-related inflammation.
Conclusion: Since there is an age-related decline in the immune functions, therefore vaccines are more
likely to prevent AD instead of providing treatment. AD vaccines might be an effective and convenient
approach to avoid the treatment-related huge expense.