Abstract
Our group has shown that the blood–brain barrier regulates the transport of misfolded proteins into and out of the central nervous system, and that it does so by reading the affinity of macromolecular cargo for receptors such as LRP1 and LRP8.
LRP1 is the main route for amyloid-β. LRP8's role is less clear and needs more work. To engage these receptors deliberately we have built functionalised polymeric nanoparticles carrying multiple ligand–receptor affinities, so that they behave the way native cargo does.
The aim is to establish whether such particles can measurably improve amyloid-β clearance from the brain.