New Approach to Alzheimer, Dementia Vaccine Using Peptide Nanofibers Receives NIH Grant Backing

A $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, has been granted to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis who have been investigating how to design vaccines to train a person’s immune system to take out accumulations of amyloid beta and tau proteins in Alzheimer disease and frontotemporal dementia. The vaccine would target the buildup of misfolded proteins in the brain.

The research group, led by Jai Rudra, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Meredith Jackrel, PhD, will build on Rudra and Jackrel’s previous work on a vaccine platform of peptide nanofibers.

The key to the success of the projects, according to Dr. Rudra, is designing a vaccine that doesn’t induce inflammation to add to the chronic inflammation associated with aging or the inflammation that ensues from using vaccine adjuvants.

Dr. Jackrel noted that recent dementia treatment trials have not succeeded because of brain inflammation, which is why they are using nanofibers. “The noninflammatory nature of these is a good strategy to counter that,” she said. Nanofibers work better because amyloid beta and tau are presented on the nanofiber surface in a way that won’t aggravate the immune system as much as previous studies have encountered.

The researchers will test the nanofiber vaccine as both preventive and post-symptom treatments.

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Grant will fund development of vaccines to prevent dementia.