Drugs being developed to tackle CJD could also help prevent Alzheimer’s

Drugs being developed to tackle CJD could also help prevent Alzheimer’s

7 June 2011

Scientists funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) have identified two antibodies which could help block the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. The antibodies, ICSM-18 and ICSM-35, were already known to play a crucial role in preventing ‘protein misfolding’, the main cause of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), the human form of mad cow disease. This discovery represents a significant step forward in the battle to develop drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease – a devastating neurodegenerative illness which affects more than 20 million people worldwide.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, has shown, using mice, that these antibodies can block damaging effects on brain tissue caused by a toxic substance called ‘amyloid beta’. Cumulatively, amyloid beta becomes attached to the surface of nerve cells in the brain, stopping them from communicating effectively and causing memory loss. The results showed that the antibodies stopped the amyloid beta proteins from taking hold and damaging the brain.

The study also confirms findings from a 2009 paper by Yale researchers which first indicated that prion proteins, the proteins which can change their shape and cause CJD, may be involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

Clinical trials to see whether drugs based on these antibodies can mitigate the damage caused to the human brain as a treatment for patients with CJD are due to begin in 2012.

The work was carried at the Medical Research Council Prion Unit at University College London, in collaboration with colleagues at the Laboratory for Neurodegeneration at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.

Professor John Collinge, director of the MRC Prion Unit at University College London, who led the study, says:

“With an ageing population and increasing numbers of families affected by Alzheimer’s disease, there is an urgent need for new drugs which will help to preserve brain function and prevent memory loss, the symptom which most characterises the devastating impact of Alzheimer’s. We’re thrilled that this discovery shows in mice that these two antibodies, which we are developing to treat CJD, may also have a role in treating more common forms of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease. If these antibody drugs prove to be safe in use to treat CJD we will consider whether studies in Alzheimer’s disease should be carried out.”

Professor Dominic Walsh, co-corresponding author at University College Dublin, says:

“A unique aspect of this study is that we used amyloid beta extracted from human brain, the same material we believe is causing memory loss in patients with this devastating disease and we identified two antibodies that could block this effect. The use of these specific antibodies is particularly exciting since they have already undergone extensive pre-clinical testing for use in treating CJD. Thus a lot of basic work has already been done and could fast-track these antibodies for use in humans. The next step is further validation in other disease models of Alzheimer’s and then safety trials in humans.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Interaction between prion protein and toxic amyloid ß assemblies can be therapeutically targeted at multiple sites will be published online today in Nature Communications

For media queries please contact:

Cathy Beveridge at the MRC press office on 07818 428 297 or email press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

Dominic Martella, Media Relations, University College Dublin, Ireland on +353 +1 716 1681, +353 +87 2959 118 or email dominic.martella@ucd.ie

University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, was established in 1854 by John Henry Newman whose classic work The Idea of a University is one of the most enduring texts on the value of higher education and a source of inspiration for the University’s current educational philosophy. Today UCD is Ireland’s largest university with almost 25,000 students. The international standing of UCD has increased rapidly in recent years and the University is currently ranked within the top 100 in the Times Higher Education rankings. The university has established four major interdisciplinary research themes that match Ireland’s needs and current global challenges: Earth Sciences, Energy and the Environment; Health and Healthcare Delivery; Information, Computation and Communication; and Global Ireland. Perhaps the best known of all its graduates is the writer James Joyce, who completed his Bachelor of Arts at the university in 1902.

http://www.ucd.ie/


For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. UCL is the fourth-ranked university in the 2009 THES-QS World University Rankings. UCL alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay. UCL currently has over 12,000 undergraduate and 8,000 postgraduate students. Its annual income is over £600 million. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/



http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications/News/MRC007966



See Study here - Interaction between prion protein and toxic amyloid ß assemblies can be therapeutically
targeted at multiple sites


http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n6/full/ncomms1341.html







USA PRION FUNDING




"which includes the ___elimination___ of Prion activities ($5,473,000),"



All Other Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases CDC's FY 2012 request of $52,658,000 for all other emerging and zoonotic infectious disease activities is a decrease of $13,607,000 below the FY 2010 level, which includes the elimination of Prion activities ($5,473,000), a reduction for other cross-cutting infectious disease activities, and administrative savings. These funds support a range of critical emerging and zoonotic infectious disease programs such Lyme Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Special Pathogens, as well as other activities described below.



http://www.cdc.gov/fmo/topic/Budget%20Information/appropriations_budget_form_pdf/FY2012_CDC_CJ_Final.pdf





Friday, April 15, 2011



PRION TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY PROJECTS, RESEARCH FUNDING, BSE VOLUNTARY TESTING UPDATE IN NORTH AMERICA 2011



http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2011/04/prion-transmissible-spongiform.html






Saturday, March 5, 2011

MAD COW ATYPICAL CJD PRION TSE CASES WITH CLASSIFICATIONS PENDING ON THE RISE IN NORTH AMERICA

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/03/mad-cow-atypical-cjd-prion-tse-cases.html



Tuesday, April 26, 2011

sporadic CJD RISING Text and figures of the latest annual report of the NCJDRSU covering the period 1990-2009 (published 11th March 2011)

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2011/04/sporadic-cjd-rising-text-and-figures-of.html





Wednesday, April 27, 2011

GENERATION ALZHEIMER'S: THE DEFINING DISEASE OF THE BABY BOOMERS


http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2011/04/generation-alzheimers-defining-disease.html




Saturday, January 22, 2011

Alzheimer's, Prion, and Neurological disease, and the misdiagnosis there of, a review 2011

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/01/alzheimers-prion-and-neurological.html




http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/





TSS