Polypeptides comprising a modified bacteriophage G3P amino acid sequence lacking a glycosylation signal

1. A polypeptide comprising a variant of a starting amino acid sequence, wherein the polypeptide binds to and/or disaggregates amyloid; wherein the starting amino acid sequence is amino acids 1-217 of SEQ ID NO:1:

wherein the variant at least differs from the starting amino acid sequence by removal of the putative glycosylation signal at amino acids 39-41;

wherein the variant optionally and additionally differs from the starting amino acids sequence by:

one or more modifications selected from:

(i) substitution of VVV at amino acids 43-45 with AAA;

(ii) substitution C53W;

(iii) deletion of amino acids 96-103;

(iv) substitution of QPP at amino acids 212-214 with AGA;

(v) substitutions W181A, F190A and F194A;

(vi) deletion of amino acid 1;

(vii) deletion of amino acids 1 and 2; and

(viii) addition of a N-terminal methionine residue; and

wherein the variant has decreased immunogenicity resulting from substitution of V215A and G220E as compared to SEQ ID NO:1 and from deletion of amino acid corresponding to amino acids 258 and 259 of SEQ ID NO:1.

2. The polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein the modification to remove the putative glycosylation signal at amino acids 39-41 of SEQ ID NO:1 is an amino acid substitution of N39.

3. The polypeptide of claim 2 , wherein the modification to remove the putative glycosylation signal at amino acids 39-41 of SEQ ID NO:1 is an amino acid substitution selected from T41G, T41W, T41H, T41V, T41I, T41L, T41R, T41K, T41Y, T41F, T41D, T41E, T41Q, T41N, and T41A.

4. The polypeptide of claim 1 , wherein the variant has (a) 1 to 9 amino acid substitutions selected from:

Amino Acid

present in the

Amino

Starting Amino

Acid #

Acid Sequence

Amino Acid Substitutions

48

G

H, K, R, S, T

51

T

G, H, K, R, P, Q, N

54

Y

G, H, K, R, P

56

T

G, H, K, R, P

135

M

A, D, G, K, N, T, H, R

140

R

D, E, H, Q, A, G

141

F

D, E

143

N

A, G

173

S

G, P, K

174

K

R

176

M

G, H, K, N, R

178

D

G, N, Q, S, T

181

W

G, H, K, R

or (b) 1 to 9 amino acid substitutions selected from:

Amino Acid

present in the

Amino

Starting Amino

Acid #

Acid Sequence

Amino Acid Substitutions

48

G

H, K, R, S, T, D, P

50

E

G, H, K, P, R

51

T

G, H, K, R, P, Q, N, W

53

C

F, H, K, N, Q, R, W, Y

54

Y

G, H, K, R, P

56

T

G, H, K, R, P

135

M

A, D, G, K, N, T, H, R, C, E, P, Q, S

137

Q

D, E

138

N

D, E, G, H, P, Q, S, T

140

R

D, E, H, Q, A, G, M, N, P, S, Y

141

F

D, E, G, N, P, Q, Y

143

N

A, G

173

S

G, P, K, D, H, R, T

174

K

R

175

A

G, H, K, P, R

176

M

G, H, K, N, R, P, Q, W

178

D

G, N, Q, S, T, F, H, K, R, W, Y

179

A

H, K, P, R

181

W

G, H, K, R, P.

5. The polypeptide of claim 4 , wherein the starting amino acid sequence is modified by 2 to 9 amino acid substitutions selected from claim 4 (b), wherein at least one substitution is present in epitope 1, comprising amino acids 48-56 of SEQ ID NO:1; and wherein at least one substitution is present in epitope 3, comprising amino acids 173-181 of SEQ ID NO:1.

6. The polypeptide of claim 1 , wherein the starting amino acid sequence is modified by two amino acid substitutions selected from the group of two amino acid substitutions set forth below:

Y54K and D178N

Y54K and W181H

Y54K and W181R

Y54K and K174R

Y54R and D178N

Y54R and W181H

Y54R and W181R

Y54R and K174R

T56H and D178N

T56H and W181H

T56H and W181R

T56H and K174R

T56K and D178N

T56K and W181H

T56K and W181R

T56K and K174R.

7. The polypeptide of claim 6 , wherein the starting amino acid sequence is further modified by an N138G substitution.

8. The polypeptide of claim 1 , consisting essentially of a human or humanized immunoglobulin Fc polypeptide sequence fused either via a peptide linker or directly to the C-terminus of the variant of the starting amino acid sequence.

9. The polypeptide of claim 8 , wherein the immunoglobulin Fc polypeptide sequence is the Fc portion of a human IgG.

10. The polypeptide of claim 9 , wherein the amino acid sequence of the peptide linker and Fc portion of human IgG is selected from amino acids 218-488 of SEQ ID NO:1.

11. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the polypeptide of claim 1 and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.

12. The pharmaceutical composition of claim 11 , wherein the composition is formulated for injection into the bloodstream of a patient, infusion into the bloodstream of a patient, direct administration to the brain, or direct administration to the CNS.

13. A method of reducing amyloid or tau protein aggregates in a patient in need thereof, comprising administering to the patient an effective amount of the polypeptide of claim 1 .

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the patient is positive for florbetapir when florbetapir is used as an imaging agent in positron emission tomography.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the patient is suffering from and/or exhibits symptoms of a disease selected from Alzheimer's disease, early onset Alzheimer's disease, late onset Alzheimer's disease, presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, SAA amyloidosis, disease characterized by formation of amyloid protein by aggregation of cystatin C, disease characterized by formation of amyloid protein by aggregation of immunoglobulin light chain, familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP), familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy (FAC), islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) amyloidosis, Finnish form of FAP (aggregation of gelsolin), senile systemic amyloidosis (SSA), hereditary Icelandic syndrome, senility, multiple myeloma, prion diseases, kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA1, SCA3, SCA6, or SCA7), Huntington's disease, dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, hereditary cerebral amyloid angiopathy, familial amyloidosis, British/Danish dementia, familial encephalopathy, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex, Argyrophilic grain dementia, Corticobasal degeneration, Dementia pugilistica, diffuse neurofibrillary tangles with calcification, Down's syndrome, Hallervorden-Spatz disease, Myotonic dystrophy, Niemann-Pick disease type C, Non-Guamanian motor neuron disease with neurofibrillary tangles, Pick's disease, Postencephalitic parkinsonism, Prion protein cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Progressive subcortical gliosis, Progressive supranuclear palsy, Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, Tangle only dementia, frontotemporal lobar degenerations (FTLDs), and frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD) including a patient having one or more of the following clinical syndromes: behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA), frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), and semantic dementia (SD).

16. A nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide of claim 1 .

17. The nucleic acid sequence of claim 16 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence further encodes a mammalian signal sequence fused to and in frame with the polypeptide encoding sequence.

18. A vector comprising a nucleic acid sequence of claim 16 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence is operatively linked to an expression control sequence in the vector.

19. A host cell comprising the vector of claim 18 .

20. A method of making a polypeptide of claim 1 , comprising the steps of expressing the protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of claim 16 ; and isolating the expressed polypeptide.

21. A method of making a polypeptide of claim 1 , comprising the steps of culturing the host cell of claim 19 under conditions sufficient to allow expression of the polypeptide; and isolating the expressed polypeptide.