sent an early stage of A aggregation in AD, and the “window” around the nucleation period appears to be the correct target for drug design and therapy in the early stages. On the other hand, protofibril elongation and amyloid plaque formation represent, respectively, the pathology in the middle and late stages of AD, and a method for degrading fibrils may provide new insights toward therapies for late-stage AD. However, it is poorly understood how the fibrils are degraded in a reverse reaction of A disaggregation. The results of A protein analysis also provided clues to the nature of “self-associating” assembly. In SPs, the major component is A42, whereas A40 is preferentially found in cerebral amyloid angiopathy. The determinant of aggregation of A42 is distinctly different from that of A40. Generally, in A42, residues 1826 and 3142 form -strands, whereas in A40, residues 1224 and 3040 form parallel -sheets. The C terminal amino acids appear to be critical for A monomer nucleation, raising questions regarding how N-terminus targeted therapies attenuate the A load in mouse models. As we previously reported, a strain of a monoclonal antibody against A42 oligomers was prepared and employed as a passive immunotherapy approach to treat SAMP8 mice, an animal model of AD. A8 was shown to inhibit A-derived cell toxicity and suppress A aggregation to an effective degree in vitro; however, the mechanism by which this is achieved is not known. This N terminus-targeted MAb has been reported to have potential anti-A aggregation activity, although the C terminus may be the determinant of nucleation. However, whole antibodies are 2 / 16 Inhibiton of A Fibril Aggregation and Promotion of Disaggregation unwieldy and undergo complex biogenesis, and their PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19776696 large genes are not suitable for efficient genetic transfer with vectors. It is unclear how A8 interrupts A fibrillation and whether the Fc fragment is required for the anti-aggregation effect. Antigen-binding fragments of antibodies PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19777456 can be refolded from a denatured state with the recovery of their specific binding ability. One of the smallest fragments that contains a complete binding site is called the single chain fragment variable , which consists of a heterodimer of the VH and VL domains. If the variable region of the heavy and light chains is sufficient to regulate A selfassociation, the entire molecule would decrease in size and the inflammation caused by Fc activation may be Chrysontemin chemical information avoided in immunotherapy. In this study, based on the sequence of the variable region of MAb A8, A8-derived recombinant scFv gene fragments were assembled via SOE-PCR and separately expressed in baculovirus systems. The parameters were concurrently optimized and the cell-free model of A aggregation was established in a modified borate buffer. Using this model, our results showed clear ultrastructural characteristics of A aggregation morphology under TEM, which can be used to determine the efficacy of inhibitors. Furthermore, anti-A scFvs were used to regulate the kinetics of A aggregation and disassembly at different stages. Our data showed that a scFv without the Fc fragment was capable of inhibiting A aggregation and fibril elongation. Notably, the effect of this scFv was substantially significant when administered beginning at the initiation of the assembly reaction. Additionally, mature A fibrils can be disaggregated by an anti-A scFv targeting N-terminal amino acids 16. This study is the first to analyze the bidirection