Dundee psoriasis vaccine discovery offers clue to potential vaccine to prevent Alzheimer's onset

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First discovered in 1934, CMV turns cucumber skins pale and bumpy and can cause the flesh to taste bitter. The virus also infects squash, melons, peppers, beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach and beets.

However, researchers believe that it offers a potential treatment for a range of human ailments.

Scientists led by Dundee’s Dr John Foerster and Oxford’s Professor Martin Bachmann, combined the protein coat of CMV with a tetanus vaccine-derived protein structure known to stimulate the immune system.

In laboratory experiments, the vaccine was shown to reverse symptoms of psoriasis in mice, as well as cat allergy. It was also shown to raise antibody levels thought to be beneficial in Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings have been published in the journal, Nature Vaccines.

Read more: Glasgow scientists reverse Alzheimer's in mice 

More research is required, but the scientists hope that their study could eventually lead to a vaccine which would cure patients of psoriasis or allergies, or prevent the onset of chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers are now looking to begin clinical testing of the vaccine and have already received regulatory approval to initiate testing in humans.

Dr Foerster said: “As an academic dermatologist with special interest in the immune system, my specific attention is on vaccines to be developed against chronic skin diseases. The idea is pretty simple – for diseases such as psoriasis or eczema, the newest and most effective medicines on the market are so-called ‘antibodies’, which are what you and I produce against bugs in a common cold.

“For chronic diseases, these antibodies are specially made against one of the body’s own proteins. By blocking that single protein, the disease gets better. To use the example of psoriasis, a protein called Interleukin 17 needs to be active for the disease to progress. By creating a vaccine that stimulates the body to make antibodies against Interleukin 17 itself we can replace the need for frequent and expensive injections and make this type of treatment much more affordable and accessible to patients who could otherwise not afford specially made antibodies.

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“Our research shows that this technique works in mice and, importantly, our new vaccine technology shows that it is likely to be a more effective type of vaccine than existing ones in older people. Since many patients with chronic conditions like psoriasis are elderly this technology may work much better to obtain effective vaccines.”

Psoriasis is an itchy skin condition which affects around three per cent of the population. Present antibodies for psoriasis treatment typically need to be injected at least once a month to keep working, and cost around £10,000 per patient annually. A vaccine would offer much more affordable treatment.

In Alzheimer’s, it is known that a protein called beta amyloid clumps together to form plaques in the brain. Previous unsuccessful trials saw patients injected directly with antibodies against to fight these beta amyloid clumps, but the new research suggests that starting the treatment – in the form of prophylactic vaccines – could provide a way of offering treatment even before the disease becomes clinically apparent and a "viable public health intervention" against the disease.

Professor Bachmann, a vaccines expert at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, said: “Alzheimer`s disease usually develops in elderly people. The fact that the vaccine described here is optimised for old individuals seems therefore particularly helpful."

He added that they were also expanding their preclinical studies to explore vaccines against Parkinson's disease and chronic pain.