(192g) Improving the Understanding of Early Stage Amyloid Aggregation Using Microchannel Electrophoresis

Amyloids proteins are involved in a variety of diseases including Alzheimerâ??s Disease (amyloid beta protein) and type 2 diabetes (amylin protein). A number of technical challenges exist for the quantitative analysis of the different sizes of amyloid proteins which are present during the early stages of aggregation, therefore requiring new technologies to be developed for enhanced protein separations. Microchannel electrophoretic techniques have emerged as powerful tools for the quantitative analysis of proteins. Photo-induced crosslinking of unmodified peptides (PICUP) is a powerful tool that can be used to capture the early, transient oligomeric species. While SDS-PAGE has been commonly used to analyze samples that have been subjected to PICUP, here we should the first results of analysis by capillary electrophoresis (CE). In addition, mutations in the protein sequence have been correlated with poorer clinical outcome. Here we should the results of UV-CE analysis of the native protein compared to several mutant proteins.