Structural aspects of Alzheimer's disease immunotherapy targeted against amyloid-beta peptide.

Alzheimer's disease is the most prominent neurodegenerative disease and has no efficient therapies available so far. Immunotherapy against amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide is one of the currently tested therapeutic approaches. Here we have reviewed the available structural knowledge about antibodies tested as passive anti-Aβ immunotherapy in clinical trials. The therapeutic anti-Aβ antibodies differ in their epitope specificity and in recognition and affinity to different Aβ species present in vivo (Tab. 1, Fig. 1, Ref. 17).