Dementia Lew Body and Parkinson's Disease Vaccine Candidate Moves Forward

Early in 2022, scientists from the Institute for Molecular Medicine (IMM), their collaborators from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) reported on the efficacy of four DNA vaccines based on the universal MultiTEP platform and targeting various regions of pathological α-Synuclein in a mouse model of Dementia Lewy Body (DLB) and Parkinson disease (PD).

The most effective nucleic acid vaccine, PV-1950D, generated antibodies specific to three regions of α-Synuclein simultaneously, reduced the aggregation of this pathological molecule, and improved motor deficits in the mouse model of disease.

In a new study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, two co-first-author scientists from IMM, Karen Zagorsky, Ph.D., and Gor Chailyan, Ph.D., along with the team of collaborators from IMM, UCI, and the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, NIA, report on the development of the same vaccine in the form of the recombinant protein, PV-1950R, formulated in adjuvant.

Dr. Zagorski commented in a press release on November 28, 2022, "Dementia is one of the biggest problems affecting the health of the aging population."

"Currently, about 1.4 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with DLB, and PD affects an estimated one million individuals."

"Development of a safe and immunogenic preventive vaccine against these diseases is one of the goals of our team."

IMM is advancing the MuliTEP, a universal vaccine platform technology that supports the development of multiple vaccine designs based on DNA, RNA, or recombinant proteins.

Dr. Chailyan added, "IMM recently manufactured cGMP grade human Tau vaccine candidate, AV-1980R/A using funding from U01 AG060965 NIH program."

"Using the knowledge we gained, we will manufacture cGMP PV-1950R drug product and use it in IND-enabling safety/ toxicology studies before testing this preventive vaccine in people at risk of DLB."

Other Alzheimers disease vaccine candidate news is posted at PrecisionVaccinations.com/Alzheimers.