Nanotechnology Now

• About Us
  
  • Advertising
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Comments
  • Friends
  • Contact
• Nanotechnology
• News
  
  • Current News
  • Press Releases
  • Submit Press
  • Press kit
  • Interviews
• Columns
• Products
  
  • Our Products
  • Books
  • Featured Books
• Directories
  
  • Companies/Academic
  • Events
  • Glossary
  • Best Of
• Career Center
• Nano-Social Network
• Nano Consulting
• My Account

Home > News > Alzheimer's intermediate characterised by SS NMR

January 1st, 2008

Alzheimer's intermediate characterised by SS NMR

Abstract:
A team of chemists at the University of Illinois Chicago has characterized the molecular structure of a molecular intermediate in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Using NMR the team has identified a precursor to the misfolded proteins known as plaque-forming amyloid, which is involved in Alzheimer's disease. The same results may also provide clues to understanding and treating Parkinson's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which also involve protein misfolding.

Effective treatment for Alzheimer's remains elusive despite the best efforts of biomedical researchers and drug discovery teams the world over. One of the problems facing drug developers is how to explain the role of amyloid plaques. Whether or not they are a cause or a symptom of the disease is not yet known for sure, although they are certainly a hallmark of this debilitating and lethal disease. Amyloid fibrils are clumps of a fibre-like protein material that is misfolded and is present at nerve cells damaged in this devastating and tragic neurodegenerative diseases.

Now, Yoshitaka Ishii and his colleagues, Sandra Chimon, Medhat Shaibat, Christopher Jones, Diana Calero, and Buzulagu Aizezi, have trapped and characterized a crucial intermediate in the formation of amyloid plaque fibres, or fibrils, showing tiny spheres averaging just twenty nanometres in diameter assembling into sheet-like structures comparable to that seen in the formation of fibrils.

Source:
University of Illinois Chicago

Bookmark:

Related News Press

News and information

Sound waves precisely position nanowires June 19th, 2013

Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Increase Thermal Stability of Essential Oils June 19th, 2013

Production of Bioactive Material for Quick Treatment of Bone Damages June 19th, 2013

Nanometrics Announces Participation in 5th Annual CEO Investor Summit: Accredited Investor and Publishing Research Analyst Event to be Held Concurrently With SEMICON West and Intersolar 2013 in San Francisco June 19th, 2013

Molecular Machines

Conceptual Nanomedical Lipofuscin Removal Strategy April 29th, 2013

A giant step toward miniaturization: Nanotechnology transforms molecular beams into functional nano-devices with controlled atomic architectures April 3rd, 2013

ASU Biodesign Institute scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology March 21st, 2013

Reversible assembly leads to tiny encrypted messages March 11th, 2013

Discoveries

Sound waves precisely position nanowires June 19th, 2013

Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Increase Thermal Stability of Essential Oils June 19th, 2013

Production of Bioactive Material for Quick Treatment of Bone Damages June 19th, 2013

New Method to Synthesize Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles with High Catalytic Activity June 18th, 2013

Announcements

Sound waves precisely position nanowires June 19th, 2013

Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Increase Thermal Stability of Essential Oils June 19th, 2013

Production of Bioactive Material for Quick Treatment of Bone Damages June 19th, 2013

Nanometrics Announces Participation in 5th Annual CEO Investor Summit: Accredited Investor and Publishing Research Analyst Event to be Held Concurrently With SEMICON West and Intersolar 2013 in San Francisco June 19th, 2013

Nanobiotechnology

Iranian Scientists Produce Dynamometer for Nanoparticles, Biocells June 15th, 2013

Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs: A collaboration of scientists at Sanford-Burnham and the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that rod-shaped particles, rather than spherical particles, appear more effective at adhering to cells June 10th, 2013

Catching individual molecules in a million with optical antennas inside nano-boxes June 10th, 2013

Whispering light hears liquids talk: University of Illinois researchers build first-ever bridge between optomechanics and microfluidics June 7th, 2013