BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There have been many promising leads for an Alzheimer's vaccine but new treatments have been slow to emerge.
"As we talked to different experts about the field, we started to realize that there's no consensus on what's the ideal current treatment for Alzheimer's. In fact, there's nothing that's working really well right now," University at Buffalo Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor Dr. Jonathan Lovell told me.
Just last year, I reported on a new FDA-approved drug called Leqembi, which was the first treatment for the degenerative disease. Then, came Donanemab.
Now, there is a new player on the field as a vaccine is in the works called PADIVAX.
"For many years, we've been interested in Alzheimer's vaccine. The idea here is that the vaccine will induce your own body to make antibodies that target the two hallmarks of the disease being the plaques and the tangles that are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's," Dr. Lovell said.
Dr. Lovell leads a research team at UB that is working on developing a vaccine.
"We were able to find a collaborator Downstate in Staten Island to do basic research where they have a long expertise in Alzheimer's research. They were able to test this vaccine in their mouse model of Alzheimer's," he added. "The advantage of mice is that they've been genetically engineered to develop symptoms of the disease that mimic the human condition. They develop both plaques and tangles in their brain. Therefore, they are a commonly used research model for Alzheimer's disease."
"The experiment took a long time to finish because we need to wait for the mice to develop the disease," University at Buffalo Department of Biomedical Engineering 2nd-year PhD Student Yting Song said. "So, even if it's in the mice model it takes like half a year."
"We know that for the Alzheimer's disease, currently there is no cure," Song added. "So, one major goal for me is that I was trying to look for any outcome."
The hope is that the Alzheimer's patient makes antibodies that will either clear the plaques and tangles or slow the progression of the disease.
Dr. Lovell began working on this concept more than five years ago.
"We were very excited to see that this treatment proved efficacious in that model," he said.
The goal is to eventually get FDA approval to test the vaccine in human trials.
