Researchers in the de Pablo group are utilizing liquid crystals as detectors of amyloid fibers, which are involved in the development of neuro-degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's. Their novel approach promises an easier, less costly way to detect these fibers and to do so at a much earlier stage of their formation than has been possible before—the stage when they are thought to be the most toxic.
PME Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering and deputy director for education and outreach Juan de Pablo envisions scientists eventually being able to test small samples of blood or other body fluid using the new detectors, or for drug researchers to put the amyloid proteins in water, inject their drug, and study how the drug influences the growth of the aggregates over time.
“It is extremely important to develop techniques that allow us to detect the formation of these so-called amyloid fibrils when they’re first starting to grow,” said de Pablo, whose group did the new work. “We have developed a system that allows us to detect them in a simple and inexpensive manner. And the sensitivity appears to be extremely high.”
Their work was published online on September 9 by the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Co-authoring the article were PME scientists Monirosadat Sadati, Julio Armas-Perez, Jose Martinez-Gonzalez, and Juan Hernandez-Ortiz, as well as Aslin Izmitli-Apik and Nicholas Abbott of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Citation: “Liquid Crystal Enabled Early Stage Detection of Beta Amyloid Formation on Lipid Monolayers,” by Monirosadat Sadati, Aslin Izmitli Apik, Julio C. Armas-Perez, Jose Martinez-Gonzalez, Juan P. Hernandez-Ortiz, Nicholas L. Abbott, and Juan J. de Pablo. Published online Sept. 9, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201502830.
Funding: U.S. National Science Foundation and Swiss National Science Foundation.
Story courtesy of UChicago News.