Static electrical field affects amyloid beta aggregation
2017
Xidian University, Xi’an, China
Alzheimer's disease is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. It is characterized by a progressive accumulation of amyloid beta peptides through aggregation, which has been thought to be a causal mechanism of the disease. Amyloid beta aggregation has been observed to depend on several factors, thus it is a very complex process to study. Here, a theoretical model is used to study the impact of a static electric field present in the human brain on the conformation of the amyloid beta 29-42 dimer. The simulations performed suggested that the electric field promoted the formation of beta-hairpins, an intermediate form thought to be important for the aggregation. Furthermore, the results showed that the application of different electrical field forces can help to reduce the conformational heterogeneity of amyloid beta 40/42 dimers to more easily elucidate insights into their structures that could have an influence on disease-related mechanisms. Overall, this study provides theoretical support to further explore the structural features of amyloid beta aggregates and further experiments combining different factors that can affect amyloid beta structure.
Small static electric field strength promotes aggregation-prone structures in amyloid-β(29-42)
Yan Lu
Added on: 09-30-2021
[1] https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4979866[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/a8fd26ef-b113-47ab-92ba-fd2be449c7eb
