Johanne Kaplan, PhD, ProMIS™ Neurosciences, Inc., Cambridge, MA, describes the early-stage development of an amyloid-β vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease, currently being tested in mice. The vaccine contains epitopes of amyloid-β protein to induce antibody production in the patient, attached to a carrier protein for delivery, and adjuvants to enhance the response. These computationally-derived epitopes are designed to resemble conformational B-cell epitopes of soluble amyloid-β toxic oligomers so the antibodies produced target the toxic form, rather than interfering with normal proteins. Dr Kaplan says the vaccine elicits a good response in mice without inducing a detrimental T-cell response, which has been a problem in the past. Future work will optimize the vaccine, determining the optimal type of adjuvants, concentrations, number of doses, and dose regimen. The vaccine will be tested in a disease model before human trials, to monitor the impact on disease progression. This interview took place at the AD/PD™ 2022 Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
