Rather Than Man-Eating, Sharks Could be Brain Saving

January 26, 2017 – A Danish pharmaceutical company is using shark antibodies to cross the blood-brain barrier. Not familiar with the subject? It is a membrane that separates the main circulatory system in our bodies from the brain. Only the brain comes with a security system that selectively allows essential nutrients to cross into it while prohibiting other substances. It is a blessing and a curse for those researching brain diseases. How do you fool the barrier, blood vessels lined with endothelial cells that are so tightly bonded they become nearly impermeable to normal blood flow.

First discovered in 1885 but only imaged for the first time in the 1960s, the barrier saves our brains from receiving most of the exotic, infectious bacteria, viruses, and chemical toxins that we may be exposed to through a lifetime. The barrier does admit glucose and specific protein molecules and amino acids. Why some and not others has been little understood.

So how does cocaine get through? How does drinking alcohol screw up the brain? These substances tend to be small enough molecularly to pass by the endothelial cell barrier. Some substances that can get into the brain are transported by proteins that act as enablers grabbing molecules such as glucose or insulin to bring them into the brain’s circulatory system. Another way the barrier can be breached is through the nervous system which if alarmed can trigger changes to the endothelial cells causing the blood vessels they guard to dilate.

For pharmaceutical companies, solving the blood-brain barrier is a quest getting closer to being fulfilled. One such company located in Denmark, called Lundbeck, in mice studies has used shark antibodies to accomplish the feat. Lundbeck is heavily into researching brain disease, particularly depression and schizophrenia.And with its latest discovery is now focusing efforts on Alzheimer’s.

Why do shark antibodies cross the barrier? Because they are 1/10th the size of normal antibodies which makes them ideal for delivering therapies through the tight-knit endothelial cell barrier. The company has found a way to attach therapeutic antibodies to the shark antibodies which then navigate into the brain.

Of course, what works in a mouse may not work in humans. Human clinical trials could begin in the next two years with a drug treatment available within a decade.