New SENS Foundation-Funded Research Project: Catalytic Cleavage of Age-Related Cardiac Amyloid
The well-known beta-amyloid protein that plays a major role in Alzheimer’s disease is only one of those which accumulate in aging bodies. Cardiac amyloidoses, caused by aggregation of the proteins transthyretin and atrial natriuretic peptide, are already the dominant cause of death in supercentenarians (those 110 years of age or older) and are expected to become much more widespread in an increasingly aged general population and as improved treatment options become available for other age-related diseases. SENS Research Foundation has recently launched a project exploring the use of catalytic antibodies – which actively degrade their target, rather than merely binding to it – to remove such aggregates.
