Brain Shuttle Neprilysin reduces central Amyloid-β levels

PLoS One. 2020 Mar 10;15(3):e0229850. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229850. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Reducing Amyloid β (Aβ) in the brain is of fundamental importance for advancing the therapeutics for Alzheimer`s disease. The endogenous metallopeptidase neprilysin (NEP) has been identified as one of the key Aβ-degrading enzymes. Delivery of NEP to the brain by utilizing the Brain Shuttle (BS) transport system offers a promising approach for clearing central Aβ. We fused the extracellular catalytic domain of NEP to an active or inactive BS module. The two BS-NEP constructs were used to investigate the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics relationships in the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in dose-response and multiple dosing. As previously shown, NEP was highly effective at degrading Aβ in blood but not in the CSF compartment after systemic administration. In contrast, the NEP with an active BS module led to a significant CSF exposure of BS-NEP, followed by substantial Aβ reduction in CSF and brain parenchyma. Our data show that a BS module against the transferrin receptor facilitates the transport of an Aβ degrading enzyme across the blood-brain barriers to efficiently reduce Aβ levels in both CSF and brain.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism*
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / deficiency
  • Animals
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / metabolism
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Neprilysin / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Neprilysin / pharmacokinetics
  • Neprilysin / pharmacology*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / pharmacokinetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / pharmacology*

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Neprilysin

Grants and funding

The company F. Hoffmann-La Roche (www.roche.com) funded this specific study. I would like hereby to declare that the funder, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.