Dementia breakthrough: Researchers say vaccine could be ‘three years away’

A new vaccine that could prevent and even reverse early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia has been approved by the US Government.

Together with the Institute of Molecular Medicine and University of California, South Australia’s Flinders University is developing a potential prevention or cure for the devastating disease.

Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia, and more than 353,000 people are currently living with the disease, according to Alzheimer’s Australia.

Alzheimer’s and dementia cause two proteins in the brain, named amyloid-beta (a-beta) and tau, to degenerate. The new vaccine would cause the immune system to produce antibodies, which work to target these broken proteins.

In research published by Nature’s Scientific Reports journal, researchers discovered the new vaccine effectively bound to the a-beta and tau proteins.

“Vaccine shows promise for both preventative and therapeutic approaches,” the report said.

Nikolai Petrovsky, Flinders University medical professor and director of South Australian vaccine research company Vaxine Pty Ltd, said if clinical trials were successful, a cure could be just years away.

“In three to five years we could be well on the way to one of the most important developments in recent medical history.”

This year, US Congress committed a further $US350 million ($AU460.2 million) into research for Alzheimer’s disease, taking funding to $US3.1 billion ($AU4.07 billion).