Slow Release of IG May Delay Alzheimer’s Disease
- By BSTQ Staff
Recent studies conducted by Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti, Saunders Family chair and professor in neurology and psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, suggest that the divergent outcomes in Alzheimer’s disease clinical studies of intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) may be due to differences in temporal administration and administered dosages.
Dr. Pasinetti and his team of investigators recently found that prolonged administration of human immunoglobulin in models of Alzheimer’s disease, using a dose of immunoglobulin ~5-20- fold less than equivalent doses used in Alzheimer’s disease patients, is effective at attenuating Alzheimer’s disease-type cognitive dysfunction while promoting synaptic plasticity. “This experimental observation provides a rational basis for rectifying the inconsistency of study outcomes in Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials with IVIG,” said Dr. Pasinetti. “We now have the much needed information supporting the potential application of slow release of immunoglobulins delivered subcutaneously to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, even at presymptomatic stages of the disease.”
Dr. Pasinetti hypothesizes that the slow release of immunoglobulins into the circulation and eventually into the brain for a protracted period of time may delay Alzheimer’s disease dementia onset and eventually its progression through epigenetic changes in the downstream gene expression of C5amediated pCREB-C/EBP signaling components associated with modulation of synaptic plasticity and eventually learning and memory functions.