Camel-Derived Nanobodies Show Promise in Targeting Alzheimer’s Disease
PARIS – A novel therapeutic approach utilizing nanobodies – unique proteins found in camels and llamas – is demonstrating potential to overcome a major hurdle in Alzheimer’s disease treatment: delivering drugs to the brain. Recent animal studies indicate these engineered nanobodies can cross the blood-brain barrier and target key markers of the disease, tau and amyloid beta, offering a potential new class of brain disorder therapies.
The blood-brain barrier, a protective mechanism, typically prevents drugs from reaching the brain. Though,researchers have found that camelid nanobodies,due to their small size and solubility,can navigate this barrier passively – a significant advantage over customary small-molecule drugs which frequently enough face bioavailability issues and increased side effects.
“Camelid nanobodies open a new era of biologic therapies for brain disorders and revolutionize our thinking about therapeutics,” says neuropharmacologist Philippe Rondard at CNRS. “We believe they can form a new class of drugs between conventional antibodies and small molecules.”
While promising, the research is still in its early stages. Scientists are currently focused on evaluating the stability, folding, and potential for aggregation of these nanobodies, and also determining optimal dosage and developing stable formulations for long-term storage and transport.
Functional genomicist Pierre-André Lafon notes that his lab has already begun studying these parameters and has shown “conditions of treatment are compatible with chronic treatment.” Further research is needed before these therapies can be tested in humans, but the findings, published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, represent a significant step forward in the search for effective Alzheimer’s treatments.
