Anti-interleukin-17A and anti-interleukin-23 antibodies may be effective against Alzheimer's disease: Role of neutrophils in the pathogenesis.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the remarkable progress achieved in the research on Alzheimer's disease (AD), its exact pathogenesis is not fully understood and effective therapies do not currently exist. In order to find effective therapy for AD, I ranged extensively over the literature and found an important paper by Tiffany and colleagues.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Neuroinflammation has been proposed as a possible cause or driving force of AD. The discovery by Tiffany et al. that amyloid β (Aβ) is a formylpeptide receptor 2 agonist indicated that Aβ is a potent chemoattractant for phagocytic leukocytes. Therefore, in all likelihood Aβ attracts peripheral blood neutrophils, monocytes, as well as microglia cells in brain parenchyma, and activates them. However, the role of microglia cells and their precursor monocytes in AD pathogenesis remains elusive. Recently, neutrophils were found to be present in areas with Aβ deposits in AD brain and in transgenic AD model mice. Because brain is vulnerable to the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and neutrophils secrete a large amount of ROS, neutrophils look like a driving force of AD. Therefore, a possibility arises that anti-IL-17A and anti-IL-23 antibodies are effective against AD, because these antibodies can be thought to interfere with neutrophil trafficking from the bone marrow to the blood circulation and thus inhibit neutrophil infiltration into AD brain. Clinical studies using anti-IL-17A and anti-IL-23 antibodies in patients with AD are required.