LONDON (Dispatches) -- Researchers have found a way to design an antibody that can identify the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells -- a potential advance in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Their method is able to recognise these toxic particles, known as amyloid-beta oligomers, which are the hallmark of the disease, leading to hope that new diagnostic methods can be developed for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
The team, from the University of Cambridge, University College London and Lund University, designed an antibody which is highly accurate at detecting toxic oligomers and quantifying their numbers.
Abnormal clumps of proteins called oligomers have been identified by scientists as the most likely cause of dementia. Although proteins are normally responsible for important cell processes, according to the amyloid hypothesis, when people have Alzheimer’s disease these proteins -including specifically amyloid-beta proteins -- become rogue and kill healthy nerve cells.
"Oligomers are difficult to detect, isolate, and study,” said Dr Francesco Aprile, the study’s first author. "Our method allows the generation of antibody molecules able to target oligomers despite their heterogeneity, and we hope it could be a significant step towards new diagnostic approaches.”
The antibody has been patented by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm.