title: Amyloid-beta immunotherapy: the hope for Alzheimer disease?
abstract: Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia of adult-onset, characterized by progressive impairment in cognition and memory. There is no cure for the disease and the current treatments are only symptomatic. Drug discovery is an expensive and time-consuming process; in the last decade no new drugs have been found for AD despite the efforts of the scientific community and pharmaceutical companies. The Aβ immunotherapy is one of the most promising approaches to modify the course of AD. This therapeutic strategy uses synthetic peptides or monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to decrease the Aβ load in the brain and slow the progression of the disease. Therefore, this article will discuss the main aspects of AD neuropathogenesis, the classical pharmacologic treatment, as well as the active and passive immunization describing drug prototypes evaluated in different clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Farmacéuticas , Grupo de Investigación Natura, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales , Universidad Icesi , Cali, Colombia.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barrera-Ocampo
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia , Escuela de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lopera
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D010455:Peptides / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D010455:Peptides
keywords: Alzheimer disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides; Immunization; Immunotherapy; Vaccination; adult; antibodies; cognitive dysfunction