Rationally Designed Antibodies as Research Tools to Study the Structure-Toxicity Relationship of Amyloid-β Oligomers.

ABSTRACT: Alzheimer's disease is associated with the aggregation of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), resulting in the deposition of amyloid plaques in brain tissue. Recent scrutiny of the mechanisms by which Aβ aggregates induce neuronal dysfunction has highlighted the importance of the Aβ oligomers of this protein fragment. Because of the transient and heterogeneous nature of these oligomers, however, it has been challenging to investigate the detailed mechanisms by which these species exert cytotoxicity. To address this problem, we demonstrate here the use of rationally designed single-domain antibodies (DesAbs) to characterize the structure-toxicity relationship of Aβ oligomers. For this purpose, we use Zn²⁺-stabilized oligomers of the 40-residue form of Aβ (Aβ₄₀) as models of br

SUBMITTER: Limbocker R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7352524 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature