Bacteriophages as a tool to tackle Alzheimer´s Disease

Abstract

Amyloid-beta (AB) is a prime suspect to cause Alzheimers disease (AD), an irreversible, progressive and age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. An accumulation of AB in the brain leads to its aggregation into soluble oligomeric and fibrillar clusters, which are the culprits to impair synaptic function and memory formation in mice models. Currently, we lack diagnostic tools to detect AB oligomers/fibrils in the brain, and the ones used provide a late diagnosis. In order to overcome the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), we used bacteriophages (phages) and phage display technology, to develop a phage-based tool for AD early diagnosis. In this seminar an overview of this work and the latest results will be presented.