New Alzheimer’s Research Could Help Prevent Future Cases

A potential Alzheimer’s vaccine discovered by University of Texas researchers could help reduce or eliminate the disease completely.

Alzheimer’s Tennessee President and CEO Janice Wade-Whitehead says the new research has the potential to be significant.

“Our vision is to make Alzheimer’s a memory. So as these advances in research become more and more available, it certainly sends a message of hope to those who are living Alzheimer’s,” Wade-Whitehead says, “and also, certainly the Baby Boomers who are moving into an at-risk age.”

Texas researchers announced last week they were able to treat a mouse with Alzheimer’s using the vaccine. Wade-Whitehead says the vaccine helps the body target the root of the disease and prevent it from spreading.

“The vaccine in mice is able to lower the production of both amyloid and tau,” Wade-Whitehead says. “The only other contributing factor that we know of is inflammation, and it seems to be able to work some on that as well.”

Wade-Whitehead says if the vaccine were to become mainstream, it would be vital in potentially saving thousands of lives, especially with an aging population.

“It will literally break this nation’s healthcare system unless we find an intervention,” Wade-Whitehead says. “The impact in terms of economics and in terms of resources and the value we lose of people being able to pass on information, will just be incredibly significant.”

Wade-Whitehead says people have called her office already asking if and when the potential vaccine is available for use. Researchers hope to begin human testing in the near future following the success of the mice testing.

“Once they start working and this is successful in humans, then the impact of it will be significant,” Wade-Whitehead says. “Not only for people in early-stage Alzheimer’s, but we want to start looking at people who are at risk but may not show symptoms.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports over 100,000 Tennesseans and 5.4 million Americans are diagnosed with the disease. Alzheimer’s is listed as the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, with the CDC reporting a near-55 percent increase between 1999 and 2014.