Monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are commonly used as a treatment for a variety of diseases, but very few are used to treat neurological conditions. One reason is that their delivery into the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier. Small antibody fragment from camelids, called Nanobody®, are good alternative to these conventional antibodies. In the present work, we study how brain-penetrating nanobodies reach the brain after peripheral administration in mice by developping different approaches. We used nanobodies specific to a metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptor, the mGlu2 subtype, as a model. F

Lifelong devotion to headache research has led to many discoveries. First a series of studies of brain blood flow during attacks of migraine. The results showed changes compatible with cortical spreading depression in migraine without aura effectively negating the then prevailing vasospastic/ischemic theory. In migraine without aura no changes in brain blood flow. This difference was crucial for the separation of migraine with aura and migraine without aura in the first and subsequent editions of the international headache classification headed by me. Then a human migraine provocation model th

…such as recombinant proteins or monoclonal antibodies from reaching the brain. Direct central nervous system (CNS) gene therapy using adeno-associated virus vectors expressing a therapeutic protein, monoclonal antibody or inhibiting RNA-coding sequences has two characteristics ideal for therapy of neurodegenerative disorders: circumventing the blood-brain barrier by directly expressing the therapy in the brain an