Università della Svizzera italiana

A bispecific immunotweezer prevents soluble PrP oligomers and abolishes prion toxicity

Bardelli, Marco ; Frontzek, Karl ; Simonelli, Luca ; Hornemann, Simone ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Mazzola, Federica ; Carta, Manfredi ; Eckhardt, Valeria ; D’Antuono, Rocco ; Virgilio, Tommaso ; González, Santiago F. ; Aguzzi, Adriano ; Varani, Luca

In: Plos pathogens, 2018, vol. 14, no. 10, p. e1007335

Antibodies to the prion protein, PrP, represent a promising therapeutic approach against prion diseases but the neurotoxicity of certain anti-PrP antibodies has caused concern. Here we describe scPOM-bi, a bispecific antibody designed to function as a molecular prion tweezer. scPOM-bi combines the complementarity-determining regions of the neurotoxic antibody POM1 and the neuroprotective...