The immunization story has really been a rollercoaster ride of excitement and then despair. This review discusses the work in a more sober light. It is too early to know whether this approach will work, but early L-dopa trials were generally a failure.
Interesting article but immunotherapy for AD has a long way to go. It may very well work in rodents but in the ageing human brain one needs a vigorous drainage route or a "solvent or a clearing agent" to go with the vaccine. This scenario is reminiscent of systemic amyloidosis, where dialysis if not sufficiently efficient shuts down the organ quickly. The brain of course has a highly specialised 'tight' vasculature and an overburdened drainage system especially in the aged brain. An effective dialysis method for the brain, therefore, might be the direction. I like the idea of overlaying the cerebrum with the intact omentum (H Goldsmith, 1997), which may create new “vascular escape routes” but profoundly cumbersome! It does not take a Stephen Hawking to think that brain microhaemorrhages are inevitable (passive immunisation) in the older species! Our early work and those of others such as Roy Weller’s (Southampton) has suggested all this. Perhaps the AD community may have read of the proposed mechanisms of CAA by several in the vascular field many times over.
References:
Goldsmith HS.
Omental transposition to the brain for Alzheimer's disease.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1997 Sep 26;826:323-36.
PubMed.
Comments
Institute of Neurology, UCL
The immunization story has really been a rollercoaster ride of excitement and then despair. This review discusses the work in a more sober light. It is too early to know whether this approach will work, but early L-dopa trials were generally a failure.
Interesting article but immunotherapy for AD has a long way to go. It may very well work in rodents but in the ageing human brain one needs a vigorous drainage route or a "solvent or a clearing agent" to go with the vaccine. This scenario is reminiscent of systemic amyloidosis, where dialysis if not sufficiently efficient shuts down the organ quickly. The brain of course has a highly specialised 'tight' vasculature and an overburdened drainage system especially in the aged brain. An effective dialysis method for the brain, therefore, might be the direction. I like the idea of overlaying the cerebrum with the intact omentum (H Goldsmith, 1997), which may create new “vascular escape routes” but profoundly cumbersome! It does not take a Stephen Hawking to think that brain microhaemorrhages are inevitable (passive immunisation) in the older species! Our early work and those of others such as Roy Weller’s (Southampton) has suggested all this. Perhaps the AD community may have read of the proposed mechanisms of CAA by several in the vascular field many times over.
References:
Goldsmith HS. Omental transposition to the brain for Alzheimer's disease. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1997 Sep 26;826:323-36. PubMed.
Make a Comment
To make a comment you must login or register.