Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston are testing an Alzheimer's vaccine on people.
The nasally administered vaccine, called Protollin, is being tested on a group of 16 people with early Alzheimer's disease, between the ages of 60 to 85 years.
Alzheimer's is a cognitive disease that impairs a memory, thought, and language. It is the most common type of dementia. In 2020, 569,600 Canadians were living with dementia.
"This (vaccine) is using some proteins to stimulate the body's own immune cells to clear away the beta-amyloid, which is really the problematic protein in Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Tanuja Chitnis, a neurologist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told CTV's Your Morning on Friday.
Amyloid is a protein that builds up in organs and can affect the heart, kidneys, liver, and nervous system.
The vaccine is showing positive results, but more testing is needed to understand dosages and any implications.
"We found that this drug is safe and well-tolerated," Chitnis said. "We're currently working on immunological studies to prove that the vaccine works in the way that we think it does."
If successful, this vaccine could drastically change the lives of people living with Alzheimer's, Chitnis said, allowing anyone to easily administer the drug. The Alzheimer Society of Canada says about 1 in 5 people have experienced caring for someone living with dementia.
"Our results suggested quite safe and patients with early Alzheimer's disease, and we're hoping that it will prevent patients from progressing into those later and more problematic stages of disease in which they can't take care of themselves," Chitnis said.
Another Alzheimer's vaccine has concluded trial results from the U.K., where a randomized placebo-controlled study showed there was a 27 per cent less decline in memory after 18 months.
Chitnis believes more research on Alzheimer's vaccines is "very exciting."
"We're seeing a lot of new treatments for Alzheimer's disease," she said. "Our approach is somewhat different, again, using the body's own immune cells to actually activate and clear away amyloid."
When asked about the trial, Joshua Armstrong, a research scientist with the Alzheimer Society of Canada, said the group would be watching for results.
"This vaccine-like approach of using a nasal spray to activate the body's immune system is a novel and innovative way of potentially addressing the beta amyloid plaques that build up in the brains of people living with Alzheimer's disease," Armstrong said in an email to CTVNews.ca Friday.
"If this treatment passes this Phase 1 trial, which examines the safety and tolerability in just 16 individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease, we will be following the future trials of Protollin to see if they result in the reduction of amyloid plaques and the slowing or reversal of cognitive decline in a larger group of patients."
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.