Bacteriophage therapies targets multiple diseases caused by protein misfolding

Filamentous bacteriophages (Ff) are a group of related viruses which infect only gram-negative bacteria They are flexible filaments of about 900 nm long and 6-10 nm thick, similar to amyloid fibrils The similarity in characteristics and conformation between amyloids that are composed of different proteins without any sequence homology raised the hypothesis that filamentous phages may affect protein amyloids regardless of the protein from which they are composed. Indeed the filamentous phages may bind to a certain conformation or region which is common for several types of amyloids and effect their aggregation similar to conformational antibodies. Moreover the filamentous bacteriophage proved to be an efficient and non-toxic viral delivery vector of antibodies to the brain, following the olfactory tract and an efficient immunocarrier for raising antibodies. The therapeutic potential of phages in amyloidogenic diseases, stems from their unprecedented ability to access the CNS, to induce a potent anti-aggregating effect, and from their lack of tropism to mammalian cells.