Infrared Spectroscopy: An Ally in Alzheimer's Disease Research

摘要

Alzheimer's disease (AD) ranks among the most common and widespread neurodegenerative disorders in the western societies, and is expected to affect more than 1% of the global population in the forthcoming decades. Although more than a century has passed since its discovery by neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, no treatment is currently available that can reverse or simply stop the progression of the disease, with AD-affected individuals living, on average, as little as seven years after diagnosis. Although long considered unfashionable, infrared spectroscopy is now becoming more and more popular in amyloid research and is bound to become one of the approaches of choice in research on Aβ. Significant advantages over other more widespread techniques include: Very low sample requirements: Experiments can be performed with as little as 1-2 μg of sample. High temporal resolution: The kinetics of stable or transient species can be detected and characterised with millisecond resolution. High information content: An infrared spectrum contains both structural information and information on amino acid side chains, which allows to study several processes, e.g. binding of ligands. Low running costs: Research-grade spectrometers are available for under ? 20,000 and chemicals required for infrared measurements are relatively inexpensive (100 mL ~2H_2O < ? 100).