Development of a camelid single-domain antibody-fragment targeting phosphoTDP-43 for in vivo molecular imaging applications

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Frontal lobe dementia and ALS are difficult to diagnose early, at which point, symptoms might not be clearly noticeable and disease has already caused severe brain damage. Research on new strategies for earlier diagnosis is among the most active areas and the hope is to discover an easy and accurate way to detect neurodegenerative diseases before irreversible brain damage or mental decline has occurred. Identification of imaging biomarkers will be critical for assessment of disease and improves diagnostic accuracy. TDP-43 is a known protein to be affected in 97% of all ALS cases and over 50% FTLD cases where the abnormal phosphorylation in protein aggregates is the necessary feature. This project aims to develop and validate camelid single-domain antibody-fragment targeting phosphoTDP-43 as a biomarker and apply for early diagnosis by molecular imaging. This is a promising strategy for the early diagnosis and assessment of disease progressions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jon Stoessl

Student:

Jingyan Zhu

Partner:

Primary Peptides Inc

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of British Columbia