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Scientists have developed a vaccine that is supposed to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome, more commonly known as trisomy 21. Two-thirds of people with this genetic anomaly will develop Alzheimer’s disease before they die. age of 60.
People with Down syndrome have one chromosome 21 present in triplicate instead of two. This genetic anomaly leads to the presence in excess of the genes carried by this chromosome, unbalancing the whole functioning of the organism. Intellectual disability associated with specific physical signs are the main symptoms of trisomy 21. These people also have more fragile health. Several studies have shown that they are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease because of a defect in their DNA that limits the body’s ability to eliminate a protein implicated in the onset of Alzheimer’s: amyloid plaque.
A vaccine that could be tested on elderly people without Down syndrome
To deal with this increased risk, scientists have developed a vaccine to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome. Last month, the Swiss pharmaceutical company AC Immune announced that it had administered the first dose of its anti-amyloid vaccine to a patient with trisomy 21. AC Immune recently obtained authorization to extend the clinical trial to the United States with the aim of making the vaccine available to more patients with Down syndrome. If the results are conclusive, the vaccine (called ACI-24060) will be tested on elderly people without trisomy 21, to see if it is able to prevent the disease in “healthy” people.
A safer solution than lecanemab?
This announcement comes a week after the American market authorization of the drug lecanemab, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody that slows cognitive decline in patients affected by Azheimer’s disease early on. The European Medicines Agency, on the other hand, is still reluctant to approve this drug because of serious side effects, including cerebral haemorrhages.
Researchers leading the clinical trial to test the ACI-24060 vaccine believe it may be a safer way to fight Alzheimer’s than lecanemab. “ACI-24060 shows promise in reducing amyloid plaques to delay or even prevent clinical symptoms of dementia”, said Prof. Michael Rafii, neurologist at the Keck School of Medicine and principal investigator of the trial. “I think that the vaccine is a safer, more effective and more practical therapeutic avenue from a logistical point of view, compared to lecanemab“, he added.