A new experimental vaccine to treat Alzheimer’s disease has successfully passed its last phase of human testing.
The drug, whose provisional name is AADvac1, was developed by the Austrian company Axon Neuroscience.
The second of the clinical trials involved 193 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease. 117 of them received the vaccine, while the other 76 made up the control group that received the placebo.
The trial lasted 24 months. During that period, patients received a total of 11 doses of the vaccine and showed high levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses.
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According to the researchers, this result could make the AADvac1 vaccine effective against the harmful accumulation of tau protein in the brain, considered one of the main markers of the disease.
Furthermore, the trial results showed that the AADvac1 vaccine is associated with a slower accumulation of plasma neurofilament light (NfL). This suggests slower neurodegeneration compared to patients who received the placebo.
To the extent of my knowledge, this is the first time that a tau-targeted immunotherapy showed clear evidence of impact on the neurodegenerative process and a strong indication of clinical effect in patients with a confirmed Alzheimer’s disease biomarker profile
explained Dr. Petr Novak, lead author of the study, to MedPage Today.
Despite this promising result, the study has yet to show convincing signs that the vaccine can counteract cognitive and functional decline in patients with varying degrees of Alzheimer’s disease development.
However, it should be noted that the study involved a relatively small number of patients and the main objective of the second phase was to test the safety of the vaccine.
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The study authors, whose results were published in the journal Nature Aging, admitted that they need to expand the sample of patients, especially those whose dementia is linked to tau pathology.
Image Credit: AXON Neuroscience