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Polymers and Self Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials
Tuesday Speaker Abstracts
Biophysics and Structural Biology of Neurodegeneration: The Case of Alpha-Synuclein
Claudio Fernandez
National University of Rosario, Argentina
No abstract
Transthyretin-Related Diseases: From the Patient to the Protein
Debora Foguel
Medical Biochemistry Institute, Brazil
No abstract
Protein Misfolding Pathway Probed by Solution and Solid-State NMR
Mônica Santos de Freitas
.
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Amyloidosis is a clinical dysfunction caused by extracellular accumulation of proteins that are
normally soluble in their original structure, but suffered structural modifications generating
insoluble and abnormal fibrils that impair the proper functioning of tissues. Although many
challenges have been overcoming in the field of amyloidosis many questions are still waiting for
answers. The limitation of many techniques approaches applied to study fibrillar formation has
slowed the advances in the understanding of how soluble proteins suffer conformational changes
that result in aggregation. In this way, solid-state NMR has been pointed out as a good tool to
improve the knowledge about formation of fibers and aggregates. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy
of proteins has undergone a great improvement due to the recent development of methods for
resonance assignments, distance measurements and determination of torsion angles. The
resolution has increased due the higher static magnetic fields, improved decoupling techniques
and higher Magic Angle Spectroscopy (MAS) frequencies. These advances were obtained due to
the development of several strategies for 15N and 13C proteins assignments in the last years.
In this work we are interested to evaluate the pathway involved in fibril formation, following
structural features that could indicates how soluble proteins undergo conformational changes that
result in aggregation. The combination of Solution and Solid-State NMR has been a valuable
tool to get informations concerning the first steps regarding the misfolding pathway.