Dihydrolipoic Acid Conjugated Carbon Dots Accelerate Human Insulin Fibrillation
Journal Title: Journal of Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease - Year 2015, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Protein fibrillation is believed to play an important role in the pathology and development of several human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Carbon dots (CDs), as a new type of nanoparticle have recently been extensively studied for potential biological applications, but their effects on protein fibrillation remain unexplored. In reality, any application in biological systems will inevitably have “contact” between proteins and CDs. In this study, human insulin was selected as a model protein to study the effects of CDs on protein fibrillation, as proteins may share a common mechanism to form fibrils. Hydrophobic CDs were conjugated with dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA-CDs) to facilitate their water solubility. Characterizations from thioflavin T fluorescence, circular dichroism spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy demonstrate that the presence of DHLA-CDs results in a higher rate of human insulin fibrillation, accelerating the conformational changes of human insulin from α-helix to β-sheet. This promoting effect is likely associated with the locally increased concentration of human insulin adsorbed on the surface of DHLA-CDs.
Authors and Affiliations
Roger M. Leblanc,
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP207468
- DOI 10.13188/2376-922X
- Views 104
- Downloads 0
Medical Driving Assessment Outcomes in Seniors Using The KSCAr+Drive: An In-Office Screening Tool to Assist Clinicians in Determining Driving Safety and Who to Refer for Medical Driving Assessments
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine how the KSCAr might be utilized to help identify seniors with MCI/Dementia as safe vs. unsafe to drive, or for whom referral to a medical driving assessment was requir...
Alzheimer’s Disease: AdultOnset of Inborn Error of Methionine Metabolism
The cause and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease remains obscure. It could arise from adult onset of an inborn error of metabolism of the essential amino acid methionine expressed through an alternate biochemical pathway f...
Altered Cholesterol Intracellular Trafficking and the Development of Pathological Hallmarks of Sporadic AD
Compared to the rare familial early onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that results from gene mutations in AbPP and presenilin-1, the pathogenesis of sporadic AD is much more complex and is believed to result from complex in...
Brain Health as a Key Concept in the Development of Strategies for Delaying Age- Related Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Disease
The rapid growth of the elderly population is accompanied by a continuous increase in the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases. This demographic change has financial, social and cultural consequences although it also...
Sporadic Parkinsonism-Dementia Complex of Rhode Island with Unusually Abundant Glial TDP-43 Immunoreactivity
Background: Parkinson’s disease can overlap with other forms of neurodegeneration; however its co-occurrence with both frontotemporal lobar degeneration and motor neuron disease is distinctly rare although characteristic...