Nowadays, Alzheimer disease (AD) is the fourth-leading cause of death in adults after heart disease, cancer and stroke in the world. It is estimated that there were 24.3 million people with dementia in the world in 2001, with majority suffering from AD and vascular dementia, and predicted that this would rise to 42 million in 2020 and 81 million by 2040. AD is a disorder characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neuro fibrillary tangles in specific regions of the brain. Current therapeutic options for AD, however, are limited and to date none have provided a cure. Among the most promising approaches to date are active and passive immunotherapeutic interventions that limits cerebral amyloid beta deposition and/or accelerate its clearance, but their safety profile is still discussed.The design, production (laboratory scale) and characterization of several murine monoclonal antibodies against amyloid beta and tau protein will be carried on our laboratories. Moreover, preclinical tests of different approaches for immunotherapy applying nanotechnology in AD will be performed in collaboration with several international partners.

STAB VIDA information

1)Profile

STAB VIDA is a portuguese biotech company(www.stabvida.com) mainly focused on DNA and RNA-seq analysis and antibodies production. Our main applications are the diagnostic and personalized medicine for Alzheimer disease and Lung cancer.

2) Main publications:

- Markoutsa E, Papadia K, Clemente C, Flores O, Antimisiaris SG, 2012: Anti-Aβ-MAb and dually decorated nanoliposomes: effect of Aβ1-42 peptides on interaction with hCMEC/D3 cells, Eur J Pharm Biopharm, May;81(1):49-56. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2012.02.006. Epub 2012 Feb 22

- Canovi M, Markoutsa E, Lazar AN, Pampalakis G,Clemente C, Re F, Sesana S, Masserini M, Salmona M, Duyckaerts C, Flores O, Gobbi M, Antimisiaris SG, 2011: The binding affinity of anti-A_1-42 MAb-decorated nanoliposomes to A_1-42 peptides in vitro and to amyloid deposits in post-mortem tissue, Biomaterials, Aug;32(23):5489-97. Epub 2011 May 6

- Le Droumaguet B, Nicolas J, Brambilla D, Mura S, Maksimenko A, De Kimpe L, Salvati E, Zona C, Airoldi C, Canovi M, Gobbi M, Magali N, La Ferla B, Nicotra F,Scheper W, Flores O, Masserini M, Andrieux K, Couvreur P, 2012: Versatile and efficient targeting using a single nanoparticulate platform: application to cancer and Alzheimer's disease, ACS Nano., Jul 24;6(7):5866-79. Epub 2012 Jul 2