Is immunotherapy an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease?
Immunotherapy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is rapidly becoming a hot topic of modern geriatric and clinical gerontology. Current views see immunization with Abeta peptide, the amyloidogenic protein found in senile plaque of AD patient's brains, or the infusion of preformed antibody specific for human Abeta, as possible therapeutic approaches to improve the cognitive status in the disease. Animal models of the disease have provided positive results from both approaches. Thus, an initial clinical trial using immunization with human Abeta in AD patients was started, but then shortly halted because of an unusually high incidence (6%) of meningoencephalitis. A long and currently ongoing debate in the scientific community about the pro or contra of vaccination or passive immunization with Abeta in AD is thereafter started. Here, the authors would like to stress few points of concern regarding these approaches in clinical practice.
Licastro
Federico
F
Dipartimento di Patologia Sperimentale, Università di Bologna, Via S, Giacomo 14, 40126 Bologna, Italy. licastro@alma.unibo.it.
Caruso
Calogero
C