A team of researchers at UTHealth Houston found that a newly made agonistic antibody lowered the amyloid pathology in mice with Alzheimer’s disease, showing that it could be used to treat the disease.
Researchers at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, led by senior author Zhiqiang An, PhD, professor and holder of the Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry, discovered that a tetra-variable domain antibody known as TREM2 TVD-lg that targets the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid 2 (TREM2) reduced amyloid burden, eased neuronal damage, and reduced cognitive decline in mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings of the study were just released today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Microglia, which are protective cells that act as garbage collectors in the central nervous system, express a single-pass receptor called TREM2.
Microglia are very important for getting rid of the amyloids that gather around amyloid-beta plaques, which are a sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
Previous research has shown that TREM2 is an important part of how Alzheimer’s disease develops and progresses. However, new research suggests that activating TREM2 more could have therapeutic effects, such as improving cognition.
“By leveraging the unique antibody drug discovery capabilities at UTHealth Houston and collaborating with scientists with complementary expertise,” says co-senior author Ningyan Zhang, they showed “the feasibility of engineering multivalent TREM2 agonistic antibodies coupled with TfR-mediated brain delivery to enhance microglia functions and reduce amyloid pathology in vitro and in vivo.”
“This antibody engineering approach,” according to the co-author, “enables the development of effective TREM2-targeting therapies for AD.”
Source: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq0095
Image Credit: Getty
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