Among the mysteries that involve the human mind is Alzheimer's Disease. Despite being considered the most common form of neurodegenerative dementia in the elderly, it is not yet known how the disease develops and, therefore, there is still no cure. However, a light rises with a research that investigates the possibility of developing a vaccine for the disease.
The study is developed by the Bioinformatics Group, led by Professor Silvana Giuliatti, a laboratory integrated into the Genetics Department of USP School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto and in partnership with the Biology Department of the University of Cauca, Colombia, through the Professor Dr William Orlando Castillo Ordóñe. Dr. Silvana is responsible for guiding student Pedro Soares Neves Neto, from the Chemical Engineering program at Unaerp, one of the research group members.
The research “Structural Bioinformatics and Immunocomputing Approaches with Multi-epitope vaccine design against Alzheimer's disease”, uses the Beta-amyloid, Tau and Apolipoprotein E4 proteins, found in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, to develop an immunizer that can be capable of promoting the creation of antibodies against the disease.
Neves Neto says that from the studies in progress, it is proposed the development of a vaccine capable of preparing the organism to fight the manifestation of these proteins in the very first moments. Although known, it is still not known exactly when these substances begin to develop in brain tissue, which makes it difficult to create a treatment to combat their reproduction.
“The objective of the study was to propose a vaccine with a focus on some of these proteins, so that, from the moment a person is vaccinated, the body itself produces antibodies against these substances. So, when the person started to develop Alzheimer's, the body itself would fight the disease”, explains the student.
Through a field of bioinformatics, the study sought to identify epitopes, that is, portions or molecules particles with the greatest potential to trigger the production of antibodies that could come into action when Alzheimer's disease begins to develop in a person's brain. From a sequence with greater potential for an immune response, a three-dimensional structure of a possible vaccine was obtained, explains the young researcher. “We believe that we have managed to propose a model that, according to bioinformatics and immunoinformatics – which works with statistics and probabilities – is probably an effective immunizer”.
NEXT STEPS - Despite the good news, the student says that there is still a long way to go. The study arrived at an initial model and from these results it can contribute and receive the contribution of the academic community that researches on Alzheimer's. “We use a very precise and effective methodology. Bioinformatics has been used in the development of vaccines for some time and there is an increasing number of academic productions in this area, as they are tools that save time, money and bring very reliable results”.
In early May, the research was published by the Colombian newspaper El Nuevo Liberal, available at this link (in Spanish). For the coordinator of the Chemical Engineering program at Unaerp, Professor Luciana Rezende Alves de Oliveira, the participation of a student from UNAERP in a research group of this level “is the result of our teaching quality and the encouragement of our students to research and develop new technologies in our laboratories and in studies carried out through scientific partnerships”, she concludes.
