STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 7 (UPI) -- In a second clinical trial on humans, a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease was 80 percent effective, researchers in Sweden said.
Professor Bengt Winblad at Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre in Stockholm, Sweden; Niels Andreasen of Karolinska University Hospital, Lennart Minthon of the MAS University Hospital in Malmo and Kaj Blennow of the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg said the vaccine only affected harmful beta-amyloid linked to Alzheimer's disease.
The trial, published in the journal Lancet Neurology, said the vaccine involves active immunization designed to trigger the body's immune defense against beta-amyloid.
In this trial, the patients involved in the trials developed their own protective antibodies against beta-amyloid without suffering any side effects during the three-year study.
Earlier Alzheimer's vaccine efforts nearly a decade ago resulted in too many adverse reactions and were discontinued, Winblad said.
The researchers suggested the CAD106 vaccine was a tolerable treatment for patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's and wider trials will be conducted.