In a breakthrough, an international research team led by scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis says it is the first to make use of an innovative immunotherapy that treats blood cancers to instead help fight Alzheimer’s disease.

Called CAR T-cell therapy, the treatment produced promising results in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, potentially paving the way for treating the ravaging brain disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The peer-reviewed study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was headed by Prof. Ido Amit of Weizmann’s Systems Immunology Department and Prof. Jonathan Kipnis of Washington University School of Medicine, and led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Pavle Boskovic.

The scientists’ research was based on the pioneering groundwork laid by Israel Prize winner Prof. Zelig Eshhar of Weizmann over 30 years ago. Eshhar, who developed CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) therapy, died this past July.

“Eshhar’s ingenious work was developed for blood cancer, and we saw that it has huge potential and took it a step further,” Amit told The Times of Israel.

In Israel, it is estimated that there are 150,000 people with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative........

© The Times of Israel