The interactions between toxic Aβ oligomers, which have been identified as the damaging molecules in Alzheimer’s disease, and naturally occurring molecules in the brain, such as neurotransmitters, may provide some information about the chemical properties of oligomers that are causing neuronal damage. The neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine were used to stabilize Aβ in oligomeric form, and the structural changes in Aβ that result from this reaction were analyzed using NMR and UV-vis spectroscopy. The ability of dopamine and norepinephrine to stabilize oligomers was analyzed using the Thioflavin T assay for fibrils, the Bradford assay for peptide concentration, and SDS-PAGE. The combination of these three methods revealed that Aβ aggregated in the presence of dopamine or norepinephrine produced fewer insoluble fibrils and maintained a higher concentration of soluble peptide oligomers than Aβ aggregated alone. The structural information obtained from UV-vis and NMR may provide some information about the specific structures of oligomers that make them so toxic in the brain.<br/>

Structural analysis of neurotransmitter-stabilized Aβ oligomers

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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