UCI study suggests vaccine for disorder

A possible vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease may also hold the key to slowing muscle deterioration for some of the elderly, UCI officials said.

Inclusion body myositis, a disorder that affects the elderly by weakening, inflaming or causing atrophy in the muscles, may be slowed by this alternative vaccine, researchers said.

There is no cure or effective treatment for IBM, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Through their research, UCI scientists suggest that the progress they saw in 1-year-old mice with IBM should lead to clinical trials with people.

After three months of therapy, mice showed increased levels of an antibody that fights an IBM protein that affects the muscles. A second, more toxic protein, was also reduced, officials said.

The study appears online in the Journal of Neuroscience.

— Joseph Serna