Miss Risa Asano

Ph.D. Candidate

The University of Tokyo

Development of Brain Shuttle Multi-Specific Antibodies for Therapeutics Platform

An antibody is a protein produced by the immune system to protect the body. Due to their high specificity, antibody-based drugs are already widely used to treat cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases and so on. Next-generation multi-specific antibodies are engineered to bind multiple targets simultaneously by connecting antibodies into one molecule, offering enhanced efficacy and functionality. Our goal is to establish a versatile multi-specific antibody platform for the development of innovative therapeutics. In particular, we focus on the development of antibodies that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB tightly regulates the passage of substances into the brain, making it a major obstacle for developing drugs for neurological diseases. Antibody delivery to the brain is especially limited. To overcome this challenge, we leverage physiological pathways to enhance BBB permeability. Specifically, we plan to develop multi-specific antibody by linking antibodies against the transferrin receptor 1 with several antibodies targeting other molecules. This strategy improves both the brain selectivity and the blood half-life of the therapeutic antibodies. The BBB-permeable antibody developed in this study are expected to serve as promising therapeutic tools, potentially contributing to new treatment strategies for neurological disorders and expanding the possibilities of antibody-based drug design