A novel strategy to test therapeutic compounds for Alzheimer's
(fluorescence microscope)
(fluorescence microscope)
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Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) and Osaka University applied a new approach to take a close look at amyloid plaque formation, a process that plays important roles in Alzheimer's disease. The technique would greatly aid the development and screening for novel therapeutics that can manipulate the formation of the toxic amyloid aggregates. Anthony Veloso, Prof. Kagan Kerman's PhD student in Chemistry, used a laser to trap amyloid-beta peptides and examined them under a fluorescence microscope as they aggregate, giving them an exceptionally detailed view of the process. The work appears on the cover of the current issue of Analyst, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
"This technique could accelerate the drug discovery process. It gives us a new way to examine the early phase of plaque formation, when the most toxic species of oligomers are formed," says Prof. Kerman, a faculty with the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at UTSC and the corresponding author on the paper.
Amyloid plaques are protein deposits that form around neurons and interfere with their function. The major constituent of these deposits are amyloid-beta, a peptide that clumps together to form harmful plaques in Alzheimer's patients, but is otherwise harmless in normal individuals. Continue to read: sciencedaily.com 
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