FTIR studies of the high pressure dissociation of insulin and alpha-synuclein amyloids

2012

Amyloid fibrils are highly ordered aggregates whose formation occurs during the development of several serious disorders, like Althzeimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Even if most biophysical investigations of fibril formation have attempted to elucidate the structural events that occur during amyloid fibril assembly, relatively little is known about the thermodynamics of the aggregated protein state, and the kinetic mechanisms of its formation. Fibrillation is an irreversible process and a key challenge for the field is the development of therapeutic strategies able to inhibit or reverse the aggregation. The coupling of conventional Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and high Pr…