Fight Aging!

From the SENS Foundation: "Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT -- cytoplasmic inclusions composed of phosphorylated and abnormally-cleaved species of tau protein) accumulate in the aging brain, and at higher levels in Alzheimer's disease and in vulnerable regions in a range of other neurodegenerative diseases. ... [Researchers] have tested immunotherapies targeting tau aggregates in preclinical models of neurodegeneration caused by pathological tau species. .... Vaccination with human phosphorylated tau led to the clearance of tau pathology from the brains of immunized mice [and] In turn, these reductions in abnormal tau species were clearly linked to substantial improvements in cognitive deficits. This is an impressive advance. The authors have used vaccination with a human phosphorylated tau immunogen to effect the immunologic clearance of pathological tau aggregates associated with Alzheimer's disease, in a mouse model expressing wild-type human tau. They have intervened late, months after the initial development of cognitive deficits. ... the vaccine has not only elicited a robust immunological response, and cleared pathological tau species from brain regions of relevance to human disease, but have linked such clearance to improved cognitive function on several extensively-used tests. The new work is strong support for the therapeutic importance and tractability of the removal of pathological tau species from the brain - in Alzheimer's disease, in other tauopathies, and in the 'normal' degeneration of the aging brain. And it is yet another in a mounting series of reports offering support for the therapeutic heuristic of removing the damage of aging, to effect the rejuvenation of the body - and the mind."

Link: http://sens.org/node/2207