Researchers find new way to use antibodies to carry drugs across the blood-brain barrier
(Medical Xpress) -- In what appears to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimers and other diseases that affect the brain, researchers from Roche Genentech have succeeded in engineering an antibody that can be used to carry therapeutic drugs across the so called blood-barrier in the brain, which can then block substances such as beta-secretase 1, thereby preventing the buildup of the amyloid beta proteins that cause the creation of sticky plague seen in the brains of Alzheimers sufferers. Publishing their results in two papers in Science Translational Medicine, the group describes how they engineered an antibody normally used to carry iron in the blood to the brain, to allow therapeutic drugs to tag along for the ride, leading to a big increase in the amount of the drug that is able to make it across the membrane and fluids barriers that serve to protect the brain from...