Fighting fire with fire

摘要

Since the pioneering work of Edward Jenner in the late 1700s, the idea of creating immunity to disease by challenging the immune system with a pathogenic agent has formed the basis for numerous successful immunization programmes. Research in mice has indicated that Alzheimer's disease (AD) might be amenable to this approach, although clinical trials were halted because of potentially serious side effects. However, despite this setback, some encouraging findings have emerged, as Nicoll and colleagues now report in Nature Medicine.