Brain parasites could potentially be used to help treat cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s, scientists have discovered.
A group of researchers, led by the University of Glasgow, have been working to see if a common brain parasites called Toxoplasma gondii, can be engineered to deliver therapeutic proteins into the brain to help treat neurological diseases.
Most neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s and Rett Syndrome, have been linked in some way to protein dysfunction but delivering new proteins to the correct location inside neurons has proved difficult, said the university.
Toxoplasma gondii parasites, believed to live in a dormant state in a third of the global population, have evolved to travel from the digestive system to the brain where it secretes its proteins into neurons.
The parasites are able to move through the blood-brain barrier, which so fartreatment for cognitive disorders has struggled to do.
To test their hypothesis, the study team first had to find out whether they could effectively make the parasites produce the therapeutic proteins, and then afterwards test whether the parasites would be able to ‘spit’ the proteins back out into affected brain cells.
The team focused on engineering the parasites to deliver the MeCP2 protein, which is already seen as a promising treatment for Rett syndrome, a debilitating neurological disorder caused by mutations in MECP2 gene.
The first success came when the University of Glasgow research team, working with a team from Tel-Aviv university, were able to engineer Toxoplasma gondii to produce the MeCP2 protein.
Further experiments, using both brain organoids and mice, showed that the engineered parasites could indeed deliver the protein to the target cell location.
The team are now looking at engineering the parasites so they die after delivering the protein, to prevent them from causing harm to cells.
The breakthrough is an exciting step forward in the search for new, effective ways of treating people suffering with debilitating neurological conditions, said the university.
Though professor Lilach Sheiner, one of the leading authors of the study, explained that lots more research and testing needs to happen before the parasites would be safe to use on patients.
She said: ‘The concept is not without challenges, considering the dangers involved with Toxoplasma infection.
‘For our work to become a treatment reality it will require many more years of careful research and development to enhance efficiency and improve safety.’
The study, ‘Engineering a Brain Parasite for Intracellular Delivery of Proteins to the Central Nervous System’ is published in Nature Microbiology.
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