Year 1

Alzheimer’s disease remains the most common cause of dementia in California and the US with more than 5 million cases nationwide, a number that is expected to exceed 13 million by 2050 if treatments are not developed. We, and others, showed that T cells responses to beta-amyloid can provide beneficial effects in mouse models of this disease. However, a clinical trial of Abeta vaccination was halted due to immune cell infiltration of the meninges and consequent brain swelling. Most of the other patients seemed to benefit from the vaccination, but the uncontrolled robustness of the immune response to vaccination makes those trials unfeasible. This project aims to refine and control Abeta-specific T cell responses using antigen presenting cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). If we are successful, then we would be able to deliver only the beneficial cells responsible for the beneficial effects, and do so in a controlled manner so as to avoid encephalitogenic complications.