A novel immunotherapy strategy aiming to fight Alzheimer’s before the first symptoms even appear has sped to the next level.
The Spanish biotech, Araclon, has developed a vaccination- ABvac, which is based on the C-terminal fragment of the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein, involved in the development of plaque aggregations that drive the disease, contrary to traditional approaches that target the N-terminal region of the protein to avoid inducing a T cell response that could lead to either excessive inflammation or severe side effects.
The candidate has so far proven to be safe as it elicited an immune response in over 87% of patients during its Phase I.
The company, now that it has obtained approval from the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices to start a Phase II trial testing, plans to deduce the dosage and confirm the positive safety and tolerability data from Phase I and implement the same in the next Phase.
While there a number of biotechs’ in this arena all competing fiercely with each other, but unlike most, Araclon seems strongly focused on developing its Alzheimer’s therapy as a preventive treatment, administered before symptoms even start to appear. The biotech is currently validating a new diagnostic test called the AB test to
detect the total quantity of Aβ peptides in blood, including peptides bound to other plasma molecules or blood cells in studies with over 400 people. This conventional tests as opposed the AB test, one only detect those that are free in the plasma, which only make up around 15% of the total.Nevertheless, Araclon might find a competitor in AXON Neuroscience which is also developing an immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s, although with a different target. AXON’s candidate, AADvac1, entered Phase II trials last year.
