Two out of three people with Down suffer from Alzheimer’s disease before the age of 60
A group of Swiss scientists are developing a new vaccine to prevent people with Down syndrome from developing Alzheimer’s disease.
According to studies, about two-thirds of people with this genetic disorder will have Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia, before the age of 60.
Down syndrome occurs in people who are born with an extra chromosome, which usually causes learning difficulties and physical abnormalities.
Experts believe they are more vulnerable to the condition because of a DNA flaw that limits the body’s ability to clear a toxic protein from the brain called amyloid plaque, long thought to be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
Last month, Swiss pharmaceutical company AC Immune announced that it had administered the first dose of its amyloid vaccine to a Down syndrome patient. Now the trial has been approved to expand to the US to offer the vaccine to more people with the condition.
If successful, the vaccine, currently called ACI-24060, will be further tested to see if it can prevent Alzheimer’s in older people who do not have Down syndrome.
The news follows the approval last week in the United States of an Alzheimer’s drug that works by removing amyloid plaque from the brain.
However, the drug, called lecanemab, has been the subject of controversy due to reports that it causes serious side effects, including bleeding in the brain.
2023-07-15 18:15:03
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