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CNN Live At Daybreak

Alzheimer's Vaccine Completes First Phase of Testing

Aired July 23, 2001 - 07:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to news about your health: An experimental vaccine designed to fight Alzheimer's has cleared a pretty big hurdle -- a pretty big step. The first phase of testing has now been completed. Scientists say there is reason for optimism.

CNN's medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is here now to give us all the details on this.

This is interesting.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. And there is reason for optimism, yet it's still going to be a while before we know if this will really work in humans.

Still, it has been just two years since researchers first saw amazing results of this vaccine in mice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice over): It's a critical step in the testing of any experimental treatment -- the phase one or safety study. In the case of an Alzheimer's vaccine that has been met with considerable enthusiasm, called AN1792, researchers say it passed. So far, in 100 people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease, the vaccine appears safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But more importantly as well, we saw that in a significant proportion of the patients, they were able to demonstrate an immune response. Their antibody levels went up. And that indicates that this was having an effect in these patients.

ROWLAND: It's too early to say if the patients' memory improved or if mental decline has slowed, though the immune response in humans was similar to that seen in earlier studies in mice. In those mice experiments, the vaccine halted and, in some cases, reversed the disease. It was also effective in preventing young mice from ever getting Alzheimer's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are hoping that if we see anything like what we saw in our mice experiments in people in a phase two clinical study that this would be a truly remarkable result.

ROWLAND: The next level of testing will include 375 Alzheimer's patients in the United States and Europe. The Alzheimer's Association cautions: Safety issues could come up as patients continue taking the vaccine.

But there is reason to be encouraged.

WILLIAM THIES, ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION: I think it's very exciting to see this product moving forward, because it is going to be a test of one of the fundamental theories of Alzheimer's disease.

ROWLAND: Most scientists think the buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain causes Alzheimer's. The vaccine works by stimulating the immune system to clear out those plaques.

THIES: If it turns out that the vaccine clears the protein out and it still doesn't affect the disease, then that's a clear indication that amyloid is not the cause of the factor.

ROWLAND: If it does work, scientists can be sure they finally hit upon the cause of the mind-robbing disease and effective ways of treating it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLAND: Scientists with Elan believe they are on a completely new frontier, a novel way of treating this. And they also have four other similar molecules that they are now going to begin studying, Colleen. So they may be in a position of coming up with the best treatment out of several -- so very exciting.

MCEDWARDS: I heard that caution in your piece about, you know, perhaps problems could arise. Do they know yet whether there are any side effects from this?

ROWLAND: No, they don't. And so far, they haven't seen any side effects, except for a little soreness at the injection site in the arm, which they would expect. But the Alzheimer's Association does caution that, over time, after taking this for months and months, that there may be some unforeseen side effects that show up.

MCEDWARDS: What if people want to get involved in this study?

ROWLAND: Well, certainly there are -- when they first announced these studies, there were so many people who did want to get involved. They can go to the Web site, www.elancorp.com to find out about the studies.

But, again, people should be warned they have to expect that there could be some unforeseen problems with this -- benefits, but also problems. And you need to be aware of that.

MCEDWARDS: Early days, but reason for hope. Thanks, Rhonda -- appreciate it.

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