Shark-Derived Antibodies in Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy

The greatest challenge in developing therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is to find a way to get therapeutic drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is a protective barrier that is made up of cells around the cerebral blood vessels and prevents foreign substances that circulate in the blood from entering the brain.

The protective nature of this barrier also restricts large molecules such as therapeutic antibodies to pass through the BBB and reach their target within the brain. Scientists have created a new proprietary technology to circumvent the BBB impermeability using a shark-derived antibody. This method works in a similar manner to a Trojan horse, where the shark antibody can be used as a transporter for therapeutic antibodies and allow their delivery across the BBB into the brain. This strategy has a great potential to reverse the damage caused by toxic proteins involved in the pathogenesis of AD.

Learn more about amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with AD