Biophysical Society Conference | Tahoe 2024

Molecular Biophysics of Membranes

Poster Abstracts

20-POS Board 15 PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF MELATONIN AGAINST AMYLOID-BETA-INDUCED DAMAGE IN MODEL LIPID MEMBRANES. Nanqin Mei 1,2 ; Carina T Filice 3 ; Julia I Lumini 3 ; Jingwen Liang 1 ; Danielle McRae 1 ; Weilin Wei 4 ; Ayumi Sumino 4 ; Takeshi Fukuma 4 ; Zoya Leonenko 1,2,3 ; 1 University of Waterloo, Physics and Astronomy, Waterloo, ON, Canada 2 University of Waterloo, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, Waterloo, ON, Canada 3 University of Waterloo, Biology, Waterloo, ON, Canada 4 Kanazawa University, Nano Life Science Institute, Kanazawa, Japan In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), amyloid toxicity to neuronal membranes results in cell damage and dysfunction, with the nature of toxicity changing with age and disease states. Our prior work showed that the structure and composition of model lipid membranes are crucial factors in this interaction. This study explores the potential protective effect of melatonin against amyloid toxicity by altering various membrane properties. We exposed model lipid membranes, representing both healthy and diseased states, to melatonin and examined the resulting effects on membrane properties as well as the resulting changes in amyloid interaction. Using Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR), we measured amyloid accumulation on membranes with/without melatonin's presence. The Black Lipid Membrane (BLM) technique was employed to study changes in permeability of membranes under amyloid attack, measuring melatonin’s impact on this change. Additionally, we used Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and High-Speed AFM (HS-AFM) to image and record realtime videos of amyloid-membrane interactions. Our findings demonstrate that the protective effect of melatonin against amyloid toxicity varies with the disease state of the membrane and is more effective in membranes mimicking early disease stages. These findings may aid the development of novel preventative strategies towards AD.

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