Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Daniel ErskineORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2022 The Authors. Nanobodies (Nbs), the single-domain antigen-binding fragments of dromedary heavy-chain antibodies (HCAb), are excellent candidates as therapeutic and diagnostic tools in synucleinopathies because of their small size, solubility and stability. Here, we constructed an immune nanobody library specific to the monomeric form of alpha-synuclein (α-syn). Phage display screening of the library allowed the identification of a nanobody, Nbα-syn01, specific for α-syn. Unlike previously developed nanobodies, Nbα-syn01 recognized the N-terminal region which is critical for in vitro and in vivo aggregation and contains many point mutations involved in early PD cases. The affinity of the monovalent Nbα-syn01 and the engineered bivalent format BivNbα-syn01 measured by isothermal titration calorimetry revealed unexpected results where Nbα-syn01 and its bivalent format recognized preferentially α-syn fibrils compared to the monomeric form. Nbα-syn01 and BivNbα-syn01 were also able to inhibit α-syn-seeded aggregation in vitro and reduced α-syn-seeded aggregation and toxicity in cells showing their potential to reduce α-syn pathology. Moreover, both nanobody formats were able to recognize Lewy-body pathology in human post-mortem brain tissue from PD and DLB cases. Additionally, we present evidence through structural docking that Nbα-syn01 binds the N-terminal region of the α-syn aggregated form. Overall, these results highlight the potential of Nbα-syn01 and BivNbα-syn01 in developing into a diagnostic or a therapeutic tool for PD and related disorders.
Author(s): Hmila I, Vaikath NN, Majbour NK, Erskine D, Sudhakaran IP, Gupta V, Ghanem SS, Islam Z, Emara MM, Abdesselem HB, Kolatkar PR, Achappa DK, Vinardell T, El-Agnaf OMA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: FEBS Journal
Year: 2022
Volume: 289
Issue: 15
Pages: 4657-4673
Print publication date: 03/08/2022
Online publication date: 28/01/2022
Acceptance date: 26/01/2022
Date deposited: 10/03/2022
ISSN (print): 1742-464X
ISSN (electronic): 1742-4658
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.16376
DOI: 10.1111/febs.16376
PubMed id: 35090199
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
