Could a vaccine beat Alzheimer's?

• Autores: Anil Ananthaswamy
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3076, 2016, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • People's brain defence against invading microbes might cause Alzheimer's disease--which suggests that vaccination could prevent the condition. Alzheimer's disease has long been linked to the accumulation of sticky plaques of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain, but the function of plaque has remained unclear. Now Rudolph Tanzi of Harvard Medical School has shown that these plaques could be defences for trapping invading pathogens. Working with Robert Moir at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Tanzi's team has shown that beta-amyloid can act as an antimicrobial compound, and may form part of our immune system