Scientists in Canada and the US hope a system they have developed for monitoring amyloid-β aggregation on a chip could be used to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a complex neurodegenerative condition and the most common cause of dementia. In the US, more than 5 million people are estimated to have the condition. There is currently no known cure. Research has uncovered that the self-aggregation of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide plays a vital role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Methods that study the interaction of Aβ with potential new drugs are therefore extremely important.
Now, Kagan Kerman at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, and colleagues, have created a sensing platform to aid the drug screening process. ‘We have successfully demonstrated a novel method for high throughput screening of small molecules modulating Aβ growth and it provides a promising platform to facilitate therapeutics discovery for Alzheimer’s disease,’ says Kerman.
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LED-based interferometric reflectance imaging sensor for the detection of amyloid-β aggregation
Xin R. Cheng, George G. Daaboul, M. Selim Ünlü and Kagan Kerman
Analyst, 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3AN01307C, Paper
