title: Immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this article is to review the role of immunotherapy in the removal of proteins which accumulate abnormally in neurodegenerative disorders associated with dementia, in particular amyloid-beta accumulation in Alzheimer's disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both transgenic mouse models and in two trials of amyloid-beta immunotherapy for human Alzheimer's disease, active immunization with amyloid-beta 1-42 results in the removal of amyloid-beta plaques from the cerebral cortex associated with, in the mouse models, improvement in cognitive function. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy and neurofibrillary tangles persist, however, and there is also concern about T lymphocyte immune reactions in the meninges in the human cases. Active immunization schedules are being developed to minimize T lymphocyte reactions and to maximize antibody production and passive immunization protocols are being devised. Immunotherapy for removal of the proteins which accumulate in other neurodegenerative disorders associated with dementia such as prion proteins and alpha-synuclein are in the early stages of development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dementias in the elderly are an increasing medical, social and economic problem and current treatments are only effective. In the majority of dementias, proteins accumulate within cells and in the extracellular compartments of the brain. In the most common dementia, Alzheimer's disease, amyloid-beta accumulates as plaques in the extracellular space of the grey matter and in artery walls as cerebral amyloid angiopathy and tau protein accumulates as neurofibrillary tangles within neurons.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Southampton, School of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK. D.Boche@soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boche
authors.forename: James A R
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Nicoll
authors.forename: Roy O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Weller
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003704:Dementia / Q000145:classification / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000906:Antibodies