Tau-based Mabs and Vaccines: development and pre-clinical assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic potential in transgenic models for Tauopathy & Alzheimer's disease.

Immunotherapy, active as well as passive, is emerging as a most promising approach to counteract pathological protein conformers that cause neurodegeneration, with best known example amyloid in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Intra-neuronal aggregates of phosphorylated protein tau are as typical and diagnostic for AD, and correlate spatially en temporally better with the progressing dementia. Vaccination has not been assessed in any depth as treatment of tauopathy, with only one experimental study reported. The clear benefits of vaccination in the reported experimental studies provide however the strong incentive to explore this novel, promising direction in depth. The aims of this knowledge-platform are dual: (i) acquire fundamental knowledge on the mechanisms whereby protein tau, c.q. post-translationally modified isoforms, damage and kill neurons; (ii) translate the fundamental knowledge into therapeutic and diagnostic pre-clinical applications.

Keywords:Pre-clinical, Monoclonal, Therapy, Diagnosis, Transgenic, Tauopathy, Alzheimer, Vaccination

Disciplines:Biomaterials engineering, Biological system engineering, Biomechanical engineering, Other (bio)medical engineering, Environmental engineering and biotechnology, Industrial biotechnology, Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering, Biochemistry and metabolism, Medical biochemistry and metabolism, Genetics, Systems biology, Molecular and cell biology