Human Trials of Oral Vaccine for Alzheimer's Planned in Japan

Scientists in Japan have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proved effective in mice, raising hopes that a treatment can be found for the fatal condition.

Scientists at the National Institute for Longevity Sciences in central Japan said yesterday that they hoped to begin small-scale clinical trials of the oral vaccine later this year.

"We hope the phase-one trials go well," Reuters quoted Takeshi Tabira, the institute's director, as saying. "Animals are able to recover their functions after developing symptoms, but humans are less able to do so. It may be that this only works in the early stages of the disease, when symptoms are light."

The vaccine reduced the amount of amyloid plaques - believed to be the cause of Alzheimer's - and improved brain function when administered to mice that had been genetically modified to develop the disease, Mr Tabira said.

The vaccine works by stimulating the immune system to attack and destroy amyloid proteins in the brain, and the mice suffered no side effects, such as inflammation or bleeding in the brain.

Tests showed that mental function in the mice returned to near-normal levels three months after they were administered the treatment.

Successful trials on humans would boost attempts to prevent Alzheimer's from becoming a medical emergency in countries with rapidly ageing populations. The disease affects 5 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer's Association, and a recent report by the London School of Economics and the Institute of Psychiatry said 1.7 million people in the UK will have some form of dementia by 2051.