StemCell Therapy

A team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have successfully associated the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine with reducing the risk of Alzheimers.The disease affects one in 10 adults over the age of 65 a number that is expected to triple by 2030, according to HU.BCG is the vaccine used to treat tuberculosis worldwide. Though in the past it was administered routinely in the United States, it is today mainly used in developing countries or with high-risk populations in Western countries.However, the vaccine has another use, according to Herv Bercovier of HUs Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Bercovier, who led the BCG study with colleagues Charles Greenblatt and Benjamin Klein, said that BCG is also used to treat and cure certain types of bladder cancer.Hebrew University Professor Herv Bercovier (Credit: Lior Mizrahi)People with bladder cancer tend to be 70 years or older, he explained to The Jerusalem Post, so they are close to the population that has an increased risk for developing Alzheimers.Furthermore, Bercovier explained, BCG has been shown to lower general chronic inflammation. Patients with Alzheimers suffer from chronic inflammation in the brain as a result of proteins that improperly unfold inside and outside of the brain.As such, the HU team followed 1,371 bladder cancer patients receiving treatment at HUs Hadassah-University Medical Center. During follow-up visits, 65 cancer patients had developed Alzheimers, a release explained. Those who had not received BCG as part of their treatment had a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimers than did BCG-treated patients: 8.9% (44 patients) as opposed to 2.4% (21).Moreover, when compared with the general non-bladder cancer population, people who had never been treated with BCG had a four-fold higher risk for developing Alzheimers than did those who were treated with BCG.Theres data reaching back to the 1960s that shows that countries treating bladder cancer patients with the BCG vaccine had a lower prevalence of Alzheimers disease but it hadnt been properly analyzed, said Bercovier.With this study, he said he believes we are closer to understanding the vaccines impact.Bercovier noted that the next steps are to reproduce the study in different populations. Then, he said, to prove causality, the team will conduct a formal clinical trial.The findings of this study were published in PLOS ONE.

Originally posted here:
Could a vaccine reduce the rate of Alzheimer's? These Israelis think so - The Jerusalem Post

This entry was posted on December 27, 2019 at 10:44 am and is filed under Molecular Genetics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |