The flu vaccine may be effective for Alzheimer's disease.

July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study published by researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center --- showed that people who have been vaccinated with influenza at least once in their lifetime are 17 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's diseaseLead author Albert Amran, a fourth-year medical student at UTHealth McGovern School of Medicine, presented the findings at the 2020 Alzheimer's Society International Meeting july 27-31The study's senior authors are DrPaul ESchulz, Professor Rick McCord and Ut Health's Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases at Umphrey Family(Photo source:Amran and Schulz worked with a team of researchers from ut-Health's School of Biomedical Informatics, led by Associate Professor DrJiang Xiaoqian Jiang, to identify potential factors that could reduce risk"Our job is to classify a large amount of unidentified patient data in the Cerner Health Facts database to see if there are drugs that can be reused to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's diseaseOnce we have identified the flu vaccine as a candidate, we will use machine learning to analyze more than 310,000 health records to study the relationship between influenza vaccination and Alzheimer's diseaseAmran and the team also found that the risk of more frequent flu vaccinations and vaccinations at a younger age was further reduced"One of our theories about how the flu vaccine works is that certain proteins in the flu virus may train the body's immune response to better prevent Alzheimer's diseaseProviding people with flu vaccines may be a safe way to introduce proteins that help the body fight diseaseLarge clinical trials also require additional research to explore whether influenza vaccines can be used as an effective public health strategyAmran also noted that more research is needed to investigate why the flu vaccine works in the body and how it works to help prevent Alzheimer's disease(Bioon.com) Source: Flu vaccine may lower chances of getting Alzheimer's disease.