Raman Spectroscopy of Alzheimer's Diseased Tissue

摘要

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common forms of dementia, and causes steady memory loss and mental regression. It is also accompanied by severe atrophy of the brain. However, the pathological biomarkers of the disease can only be confirmed and examined upon the death of the patient. A commercial (Renishaw PLC~R, UK) Raman system with an 830 nm NIR diode laser was used to analyse brain samples, which were flash frozen at post-mortem. Ethical approval was sought for these samples. The Alzheimer's diseased samples contained a number of biomarkers, including neuritic plaques and tangles. The Raman spectra were examined in order to differentiate between normal and Alzheimer's diseased brain tissues. Preliminary results indicate that Alzheimer's diseased tissues can be differentiated from control tissues using Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra differ in terms of peak intensity, and the presence of a stronger amide I band in the 1667 cm~(-1) region which occurs more prominently in the Alzheimer's diseased tissue. These preliminary results indicate that the beta-amyloid protein originating from neuritic plaques can be identified with Raman spectroscopy.