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Immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s Disease: DNA- and Protein-Based Epitope Vaccines

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DNA Vaccines

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1143))

Abstract

Active immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is aimed to induce antibodies specific to amyloid-beta (Aβ) that are capable to reduce the level of Aβ in the CNS of Alzheimer’s disease patients. First clinical trial AN-1792 that was based on vaccination with full-length Aβ42 showed that safe and effective AD vaccine should induce high titers of anti-Aβ antibodies without activation of harmful autoreactive T cells. Replacement of self-T cell epitope with foreign epitope, keeping self-B cell epitope intact, may allow to induce high titers of anti-Aβ antibodies while avoiding the activation of T cells specific to Aβ.

Here we describe the protocols for evaluation of AD DNA- or multiple antigenic peptide (MAP)-based epitope vaccines composed of Aβ1–11 B cell epitope fused to synthetic T cell epitope PADRE (Aβ1–11-PADRE). All protocols could be used for testing any epitope vaccine constructed in your lab and composed of other T cell epitopes using the appropriate peptides in tests for evaluation of humoral and cellular immune responses.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIH grants AG20241, NS50895, NS057395, and NS065518 and from the Alzheimer’s Association IIRG12239626.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Immunology, Institute for Molecular Medicine, 16371 Gothard Street, Huntington Beach, CA, 92647, USA

    Hayk Davtyan & Anahit Ghochikyan

  2. Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Irina Petrushina

Authors
  1. Hayk Davtyan
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  2. Irina Petrushina
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  3. Anahit Ghochikyan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anahit Ghochikyan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section Of Medical Biotechnology, Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Monica Rinaldi

  2. Section Of Medical Biotechnology, Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Daniela Fioretti

  3. Section Of Medical Biotechnology, Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Sandra Iurescia

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Davtyan, H., Petrushina, I., Ghochikyan, A. (2014). Immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s Disease: DNA- and Protein-Based Epitope Vaccines. In: Rinaldi, M., Fioretti, D., Iurescia, S. (eds) DNA Vaccines. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1143. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0410-5_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0410-5_16

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-0409-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-0410-5

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