Young Lama born near the base camp at the start of the Ice Memory expedition to Bolivia. © Bruno Jourdain / IGE / CNRS Images
- Nanocorps have been designed from lamas antibodies to target a key brain receptor involved in schizophrenia.
- Injected peripheral, these mini-antibodies cross the blood-brain barrier to reach the brain.
- Treatment improves cognitive functions in two animal models of the disease.
Lamas have a particular type of antibodies from which scientists have just produced mini-antibodies. These “nanocorps” easily cross the biological barrier which protects brain cells1which makes them more effective than the antibodies used until then in the treatments. Biodegradable and associated with limited side effects, they now represent the promise of a new generation of schizophrenia treatments. These results, carried by CNRS scientists, Inserm, and the University of Montpellier2are published in the journal Nature July 23, 2025.
If the current treatments of schizophrenia – mental illness affecting 1 % of the world’s population – helps reduce certain symptoms, they are very little act on cognitive disorders affecting the daily life of patients.
Scientists from the Institute of Functional Genomics (CNRS/Inserm/University of Montpellier) have just designed a nanocorps from llamas antibodies, capable of specifically activating a glutamate receptor involved in the regulation of neurons activity. Can be administered by venous or muscular route peripherally, this new molecule has demonstrated its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and effectively reach their receptors in the brain.
The therapeutic effect of these nanocorps was evaluated in two preclinical models of schizophrenia. The administration of the nanocorps made it possible to correct the cognitive disorders observed in these two murine models: the cognitive functions of the animals are clearly improved from the first injection, with a prolonged effect for more than a week.
Clinical studies will now be necessary to demonstrate that this ability to correct cognitive disorders via a peripheral injection can constitute a new path of treatment for schizophrenia. This work confirms the potential of nanocorps as a new therapeutic strategy to act on the brain, their use can ultimately be extended to the treatment of other neurological diseases.
1. Natural structure that protects the brain by filtering the substances present in the blood. It prevents most molecules from penetrating brain cells, which makes the administration of treatments difficult to target these cells.
2. Working at the Institute of Functional Genomics (CNRS/INSERM/UNIV Montpellier) and at the Marseille cancer research center (Aix-Marseille University/CNRS/INSERM/PAOLI-CALMETTES Institute).
