期刊
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
卷 25, 期 38, 页码 6050-6060出版社
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201502830
关键词
beta amyloid; early stage detection; liquid crystals; neurodegenerative diseases; sensors
类别
资金
- National Science Foundation [DMR-1410674]
- University of Wisconsin MRSEC [DMR-1121288]
- Swiss National Science Foundation [P300P2_151342]
- CONACYT [250263]
- [CBET-1264021]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [P300P2_151342] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys [1264021] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1410674] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Liquid crystals (LCs) can serve as sensitive reporters of interfacial events, and this property has been used for sensing of synthetic or biological toxins. Here it is demonstrated that LCs can distinguish distinct molecular motifs and exhibit a specific response to beta-sheet structures. That property is used to detect the formation of highly toxic protofibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, where it is crucial to develop methods that probe the early-stage aggregation of amyloidogenic peptides in the vicinity of biological membranes. In the proposed method, the amyloid fibrils formed at the lipid-decorated LC interface can change the orientation of LCs and form elongated and branched structures that are amplified by the mesogenic medium; however, nonamyloidogenic peptides form ellipsoidal domains of tilted LCs. Moreover, a theoretical and computational analysis is used to reveal the underlying structure of the LC, thereby providing a detailed molecular-level view of the interactions and mechanisms responsible for such motifs. The corresponding signatures can be detected at nanomolar concentrations of peptide by polarized light microscopy and much earlier than the ones that can be identified by fluorescence-based techniques. As such, it offers the potential for early diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases and for facile testing of inhibitors of amyloid formation.
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