A Different Approach to Immunotherapy Versus Aggregates
From the SENS Foundation: "A comprehensive suite of rejuvenation biotechnologies must include the removal of extracellular aggregates from aging cells and tissues. The most clinically-advanced such biotechnology is immunotherapy against aggregated beta-amyloid protein (Abeta), a characteristic neuropathological lesion that accumulates in the brain in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and as part of "normal" brain aging. ... The promise of active and passive Abeta-targeting vaccines is high, but experimental and clinical testing of such therapies have revealed some of their limitations. Immunotherapeutics currently in clinical development rely in different ways on the mobilization of the patient's immune processes. ... Therapeutic efficacy thus depends on the patient's immune response to vaccination, which notoriously declines with aging. ... An ideal Abeta immunotherapy would thus not depend on the patient's immune system for effectiveness or safety, but would have an "intrinsic" mechanism of action ... [researchers] have made significant progress with a promising novel approach to Abeta immunotherapy that promises to deliver on all of these fronts. They have identified, purified, and characterized [antibodies] with direct hydrolytic activity against these pathological aggregates." Antibodies are the weapons used by immune cells to mark and destroy their targets - but if you can regularly infuse antibodies into the body, then you don't necessarily need the immune cells to take action.
Link: http://www.sens.org/research/research-blog/optimizing-abeta-clearance-catalytic-immunoglobulins