Autoimmune responses shouldn't be a problem with scyllo-inositol. "This compound works by a different mechanism and doesn't involve immunizing a patient with his own protein, which was probably the origin of the allergic reaction to the vaccine," the researcher said.
Another complication with previous attempts to treat Alzheimer's disease has been that some compounds--such as beta secretase inhibitors--cannot enter the brain easily, St George-Hyslop explained. Scyllo-inositol, on the other hand, readily passes through the blood-brain barrier where it is made available to the central nervous system.
Even if scyllo-inositol does prove safe and effective in humans, patients will likely still need drugs designed to attack other aspects of Alzheimer's pathology, such as tau neurofibrillary tangles, St George-Hyslop said.
"Alzheimer's disease is probably going to be treated by a cocktail of drugs," he predicted. "Some of them might be this compound, or one like it, that blocks the toxicity and aggregation of amyloid."