Bioscience Chapter Database :: 3618 Chapters Now Online

Chapter category: Neurodegenerative Disease

Modulating Amyloid-β Levels by Immunotherapy: A Potential Therapeutic

This chapter appears in the following book:

Ab Metabolism and Alzheimer's Disease

Edited by: Takaomi Saido
ISBN: 1-58706-230-5
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Cynthia A. Lemere, Timothy J. Seabrook, Melitza Iglesias, Chica Mori, Jodi F. Leverone and Edward T. Spooner


[+] view image
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and afflicts ~15-20 million people worldwide. Currently, there is no effective cure. Research efforts over the past decade have demonstrated that amyloid-beta protein (Aβ), a small peptide generated from its large precursor protein, the amyloid precursor protein (APP), plays a central role in AD pathogenesis, thus leading to the development of therapies aimed at lowering Aβ levels in the brain. One such strategy involves using Aβ immunotherapy, either by direct Aβ peptide vaccination or passive transfer of Aβ-specific antibodies, to modulate Aβ levels in the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we provide an overview of such immune-based studies in wildtype (WT) mice and transgenic (tg) mouse models of AD, as well as those in humans. Aβ immunization in APP tg mice has proven effective in lowering cerebral Aβ levels, including plaque deposition, with the caveat that the earlier it is given, the better. Prevention of and improvement in behavior deficits normally seen in APP tg mice has been shown following both active and passive Aβ immunization. Various immunization protocols have been tested in both WT and tg mice and are described here. Three proposed mechanisms for the Aβlowering, behavioral improvement effects of the Aβ vaccine are discussed and include: disaggregation of Aβ fibrillar aggregates and prevention of soluble Aβ to form fibrils, Fcmediated microglial phagocytosis of Aβ, and a shift in efflux of Aβ from CNS to the periphery. Following clinical safety trials, a large Phase IIa clinical Aβ vaccine trial in AD patients was initiated in the USA and Europe in late 2001. The dosing was stopped on March 1, 2002, due to adverse CNS reactions in ~5% of patients. We speculate here about the possible causes for such adverse effects and provide a culmination of ideas from many researchers towards the future of Aβ immunotherapy for the prevention and treatment of AD. It is with optimism that we proceed.

» Access chapter for $19



Additional chapters from this book:

Modulating Amyloid-β Levels by Immunotherapy: A Potential Therapeutic

Cynthia A. Lemere, Timothy J. Seabrook, Melitza Iglesias, Chica Mori, Jodi F. Leverone and Edward T. Spooner

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and afflicts ~15-20 million people worldwide. Currently, there is no effective cure. Research efforts over the past decade have dem...

Potential Role of Endogenous and Exogenous Aβ Binding Molecules in Aβ Clearance and Metabolism

Donald B. DeMattos, Kelly R. Bales, Steven M. Paul and David M. Holtzman

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly and there are currently no effective therapies for either the prevention or treatment of this disease. The last decade ...

Transport-Clearance Hypothesis for Alzheimer's Disease and Potential Therapeutic

Berislav V. Zlokovic and Blas Frangione

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the major cause of dementia and the most common form of human amyloidosis. AD affects an astoundingly large number of people and is common with advancing age. The b...

Amyloid β-Protein in Low-Density Membrane Domains

Maho Morishima-Kawashima and Yasuo lhara

Membrane microdomains, which have just been emerging thanks to recent technological progress, may have significant roles in normal cell functions such as adhesion, signaling, and trafficking. ...

Aβ Metabolism in Cholesterol Enriched Membrane Microdomains

Todd E. Golde and M. Paul Murphy

Aggregation and accumulation of Aβ is a pathological hallmark of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain. Studies on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from living patients and postmortem control brain...

Aβ Degradation by Endothelin-Converting Enzymes

Elizabeth A. Eckman and Christopher B. Eckman

The abnormal accumulation of β-amyloidloid (Aβ) in the brain is an early and invariant feature of Alzheimer's disease and is believed to play a pivotal role in the etiology and patho...

Proteolytic Degradation of Aβ by Neprilysin and Other Peptidases

Takaomi C. Saido and Hiroyuki Nakahara

Amyloid β peptide (Aβ), the pathogenic agent of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is a physiological metabolite in the brain. We focused our attention and effort on elucidation of the unreso...

Functional Roles of APP Secretases

Cleavage of APP by α-, β and γ-secretases strikingly resembles regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP), which is normally employed to generate signaltransducing fragments f...

γ -Secretase and Presenilin

Michael S. Wolfe

Because production and deposition of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) is intimately linked to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the proteases responsible for excising Aβ f...

APP α -Secretase, a Novel Target for Alzheimer Drug Therapy

Shoichi Ishiura, Masashi Asai, Chinatsu Hattori, Nika Hotoda, Beata Szabo, Noboru Sasagawa and Sei-ichi Tanuma

The neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be caused by deposition of amyloid β peptide (Aβ) in plaques in brain tissue (amyloid hypothesis). Mechanisms of Aβ production ...

β - Secretase: Progress and Open Questions

Martin Citron

Finding inhibitors of Aβ42 generation is a major goal of Alzheimer's disease drug development. Two target protease activities, β-and γ-secretases, were operationally defined mo...

Overview - Aβ Metabolism: From Alzheimer

Takaomi C. Saido

Readers and authors of this book alike are the allies of scientists and scientists-to-be in the fight against one of our most common and mightiest enemies, Alzheimer's disease (AD), which depr...


SIGN IN

Email:


Password:


lost password?




[ Home | Authors | Editors | Custom Books | Chapter Reprints | Subscribe | Contact | Biotoons ]