AN EXPERIMENTAL Alzheimer’s vaccine does destroy the plaques characteristic of the disease, post-mortem studies on the brain of a recipient have shown.
However, it is still not clear whether removing the plaques will prevent the slow mental decline that afflicts sufferers. And of the 200 or so people who have been given the vaccine, about 5 per cent suffered brain inflammation – a problem that was partly responsible for the death of the woman whose brain has now been examined. So the company developing the vaccine, Elan Pharmaceuticals of Dublin, is applying for permission to try out two potentially safer treatments.…
