Poly(trehalose) Nanoparticles Prevent Amyloid Aggregation and Suppress Polyglutamine Aggregation in a Huntington’s Disease Model Mouse

Prevention and therapeutic strategies for various neurodegenerative diseases focus on inhibiting protein fibrillation, clearing aggregated protein plaques from the brain, and lowering protein-aggregate-induced toxicity. We have designed poly(trehalose) nanoparticles that can inhibit amyloid/polyglutamine aggregation under extra-/intracellular conditions, reduce such aggregation-derived cytotoxicity, and prevent polyglutamine aggregation in a Huntington’s disease (HD) model mouse brain. The nanoparticles have a hydrodynamic size of 20–30 nm and are composed of a 6 nm iron oxide core and a zwitterionic polymer shell containing ∼5–12 wt % covalently linked trehalose. The designed poly(trehalose) nanoparticles are 1000–10000 times more efficient than molecular trehalose in inhibiting protein fibrillation in extra-cellular space, in blocking aggregation of polyglutamine-containing mutant huntingtin protein in model neuronal cells, and in suppressing mutant huntingtin aggregates in HD mouse brain. We show that ...