Gold Nanoparticles as Nucleation Centers for Amyloid Fibrillation

YANINA ÁLVAREZ; JESICA V PELLEGROTTI; FERNANDO D. STEFANI

Use of Nanoparticles in Neuroscience

Humana Press

Año: 2018; p. 269 - 291

The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibrils is related to more than 30 diseases, including the most common neurodegenerative conditions. Amyloid fibrillation is a nucleation-dependent polymerization reaction where monomeric protein first assembles into oligomers that in turn serve as nuclei for fibril for- mation. Recently, nanoparticles of various compositions and sizes have been investigated as nucleation centers for amyloid fibrillation. The interaction of nanoparticles with amyloid proteins can generate inter- mediate structures able to accelerate or inhibit fibrillation, and therefore, they constitute a tool to control and manipulate amyloid fibrillation which may be the key to elucidate molecular mechanisms or to devise therapies. In this chapter, we first give a general overview about the use of nanoparticles as artificial nucle- ation centers for amyloid aggregation, and then we focus on gold nanoparticles providing detailed proto- cols for their functionalization and use in amyloid fibrillation assays.