Researchers at the University of Lisbon have identified small antibody fragments that can inhibit the aggregation of Tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. The findings were published in Communications Biology, part of the Nature Portfolio.
Led by Cláudio M. Gomes at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the team identified three nanobodies that interfered with different stages of Tau aggregation. One was particularly effective, completely suppressing aggregation and propagation in a cell model.
The discovery emerged from research into S100B, a protein involved in protective mechanisms against protein aggregation in the brain. Nanobodies originally developed to study S100B were found to recognise Tau directly, opening a new line of investigation.
The research was conducted at the BioISI Institute for Biosystems and Integrative Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Porto’s i3S, the University of Lille in France, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
The findings remain at the fundamental research stage and do not constitute a treatment for Alzheimer’s. The next steps include testing the nanobodies against Tau aggregates obtained from human brain tissue and assessing their effects in neuronal models.
