AD is the most prevalent cause of dementia and, currently, there is no effective treatment.
Led by Dr Jonathan Kipnis, professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, working with PureTech scientists, the study suggests that enhancing meningeal lymphatic drainage could improve clinical outcomes in AD, either alone or in combination with passive immunotherapies, such as antibodies directed at amyloid beta (Aβ).
Meningeal lymphatic drainage has an important role in the accumulation of Aβ in the brain, according to the team, and the study indicates that clinical outcomes of AD could be improved by restoring healthy drainage patterns.
The new paper builds on foundational research published in Nature in 2018, in which Dr Kipnis’s lab showed that disrupting meningeal lymphatic drainage promoted Aβ accumulation in preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease.
The more recent work finds that improving meningeal lymphatic drainage enhances Aβ clearance in conjunction with passive immunotherapies and modulates microglia activation to improve neural tissue homeostasis in aged transgenic Alzheimer’s disease mice.
PureTech holds an exclusive license to the underlying intellectual property. The company said it is aiming to advance this work via its wholly-owned meningeal lymphatics research program, which is targeting a range of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases.
Halting AD progression
We asked Joe Bolen, PhD, chief scientific officer at PureTech, to spell out more clearly the meaning of “improved clinical outcomes” of AD seen in the study.