Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy to Distinguish Toxic Oligomers from Aβ1- 42 Fibrils at the Nanometer Scale

Unveiling brain disorders using liquid biopsy and Raman spectroscopy

Brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), present significant challenges in early diagnosis and intervention. Conventional imaging modalities, while valuable, lack the molecular specificity necessary for precise disease characterization. Compared to the study of conventional brain tissues, liquid biopsy, which focuses on blood, tear, saliva, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), also unveils a myriad of underlying molecular processes, providing abundant predictive clinical information. In addition, liquid biopsy is minimally- to non-invasive, and highly repeatable, offering the potential for continuous monitoring. Raman spectroscopy (RS), with its ability to provide rich molecular information and cost-effectiveness, holds great potential for transformative advancements in early detection and understanding the biochemical changes associated with NDs and TBI. Recent developments in Raman enhancement technologies and advanced data analysis methods have enhanced the applicability of RS in probing the intricate molecular signatures within biological fluids, offering new insights into disease pathology. This review explores the growing role of RS as a promising and emerging tool for disease diagnosis in brain disorders, particularly through the analysis of liquid biopsy. It discusses the current landscape and future prospects of RS in the diagnosis of brain disorders, highlighting its potential as a non-invasive and molecularly specific diagnostic tool.

Characterizing Prion-Like Protein Aggregation: Emerging Nanopore-Based Approaches

Prion-like protein aggregation is characteristic of numerous neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. This process involves the formation of aggregates ranging from small and potentially neurotoxic oligomers to highly structured self-propagating amyloid fibrils. Various approaches are used to study protein aggregation, but they do not always provide continuous information on the polymorphic, transient, and heterogeneous species formed. This review provides an updated state-of-the-art approach to the detection and characterization of a wide range of protein aggregates using nanopore technology. For each type of nanopore, biological, solid-state polymer, and nanopipette, discuss the main achievements for the detection of protein aggregates as well as the significant contributions to the understanding of protein aggregation and diagnostics.

Raman Spectroscopy on Brain Disorders: Transition from Fundamental Research to Clinical Applications

Brain disorders such as brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are accompanied by chemical alterations in the tissues. Early diagnosis of these diseases will provide key benefits for patients and opportunities for preventive treatments. To detect these sophisticated diseases, various imaging modalities have been developed such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). However, they provide inadequate molecule-specific information. In comparison, Raman spectroscopy (RS) is an analytical tool that provides rich information about molecular fingerprints. It is also inexpensive and rapid compared to CT, MRI, and PET. While intrinsic RS suffers from low yield, in recent years, through the adoption of Raman enhancement technologies and advanced data analysis approaches, RS has undergone significant advancements in its ability to probe biological tissues, including the brain. This review discusses recent clinical and biomedical applications of RS and related techniques applicable to brain tumors and NDs.

Comparing Commercial Metal-Coated AFM Tips and Home-Made Bulk Gold Tips for Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Polymer Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) combines the high specificity and sensitivity of plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with the high spatial resolution of scanning probe microscopy. TERS has gained a lot of attention from many nanoscience fields, since this technique can provide chemical and structural information of surfaces and interfaces with nanometric spatial resolution. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are very versatile nanostructures that can be dispersed in organic solvents or polymeric matrices, giving rise to new nanocomposite materials, showing improved mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. Moreover, MWCNTs can be easily functionalized with polymers in order to be employed as specific chemical sensors. In this context, TERS is strategic, since it can provide useful information on the cooperation of the two components at the nanoscale for the optimization of the macroscopic properties of the hybrid material. Nevertheless, efficient TERS characterization relies on the geometrical features and material composition of the plasmonic tip used. In this work, after comparing the TERS performance of commercial Ag coated nanotips and home-made bulk Au tips on bare MWCNTs, we show how TERS can be exploited for characterizing MWCNTs mixed with conjugated fluorene copolymers, thus contributing to the understanding of the polymer/CNT interaction process at the local scale.

Nanoscale Hyperspectral Imaging of Amyloid Secondary Structures in Liquid

Abnormal aggregation of amyloid-β is a very complex and heterogeneous process. Owing to methodological limitations, the aggregation pathway is still not fully understood. Herein a new approach is presented in which the secondary structure of single amyloid-β aggregates is investigated with tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) in a liquid environment. Clearly resolved TERS signatures of the amide I and amide III bands enabled a detailed analysis of the molecular structure of single aggregates at each phase of the primary aggregation of amyloid-β and also of small species on the surface of fibrils attributed to secondary nucleation. Notably, a β-sheet rearrangement from antiparallel in protofibrils to parallel in fibrils is observed. This study allows better understanding of Alzheimer's disease etiology and the methodology can be applied in studies of other neurodegenerative disorders.

PIP2 Phospholipid-Induced Aggregation of Tau Filaments Probed by Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

The morphology and secondary structure of peptide fibers formed by aggregation of tubulin-associated unit (Tau) fragments (K18), in the presence of the inner cytoplasmic membrane phosphatidylinositol component (PIP₂ ) or heparin sodium (HS) as cofactors, are determined with nanoscale (<10 nm) spatial resolution. By means of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), the inclusion of PIP₂ lipids in fibers is determined based on the observation of specific C=O ester vibration modes. Moreover, analysis of amide I and amide III bands suggests that the parallel β-sheet secondary structure content is lower and the random coil content is higher for fibers grown from the PIP₂ cofactor instead of HS. These observations highlight the occurrence of some local structural differences between these fibers. This study constitutes the first nanoscale structural characterization of Tau/phospholipid aggregates, which are implicated in deleterious mechanisms on neural membranes in Alzheimer's disease.

Assemblies of amyloid-β30-36 hexamer and its G33V/L34T mutants by replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulation

The aggregation of amyloid-β peptides is associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, in which the 30–36 fragments play an important part as a fiber-forming hydrophobic region. The fibrillar structure of Aβ_30–36 has been detected by means of X-ray diffraction, but its oligomeric structural determination, biophysical characterization, and pathological mechanism remain elusive. In this study, we have investigated the structures of Aβ_30–36 hexamer as well as its G33V and L34T mutants in explicit water environment using replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations. Our results show that the wild-type (WT) Aβ_30–36 hexamer has a preference to form β-barrel and bilayer β-sheet conformations, while the G33V or L34T mutation disrupts the β-barrel structures: the G33V mutant is homogenized to adopt β-sheet-rich bilayers, and the structures of L34T mutant on the contrary get more diverse. The hydrophobic interaction plays a critical role in the formation and stability of oligomeric assemblies among all the three systems. In addition, the substitution of G33 by V reduces the β-sheet content in the most populated conformations of Aβ_30–36 oligomers through a steric effect. The L34T mutation disturbs the interpeptide hydrogen bonding network, and results in the increased coil content and morphological diversity. Our REMD runs provide structural details of WT and G33V/L34T mutant Aβ_30–36 oligomers, and molecular insight into the aggregation mechanism, which will be helpful for designing novel inhibitors or amyloid-based materials.

Investigation of the interactions between aptamer and misfolded proteins: From monomer and oligomer to fibril by single-molecule force spectroscopy

Increasing knowledge on the understanding interactions of aptamer with misfolded proteins (including monomer, oligomer, and amyloid fibril) is crucial for development of aggregation inhibitors and diagnosis of amyloid diseases. Herein, the interactions of lysozyme monomer-, oligomer-, and amyloid fibril-aptamer were investigated using single-molecule force spectroscopy. The results revealed that the aptamer screened against lysozyme monomer could also bind to oligomer and amyloid fibril, in spite of the recognition at a lower binding probability. It may be attributed to the inherent structural differences of misfolded proteins and the flexible conformation of aptamer. In addition, dynamic force spectra showed that there were similar dissociation paths in the dissociation process of lysozyme monomer-, oligomer-, and amyloid fibril-aptamer complexes. It showed that the dissociation only passed 1 energy barrier from the binding state to the detachment. However, the dynamic parameters suggested that the oligomer- and amyloid fibril-aptamer were more stable than lysozyme monomer-aptamer. The phenomena may result from the exposure of aptamer-recognized sequences on the surface and the electrostatic interactions. This work demonstrated that single-molecule force spectroscopy could be a powerful tool to study the binding behavior of the aptamer with misfolded proteins at single-molecule level, providing abundant information for researches and comprehensive applications of aptamer probes in diagnosis of amyloid diseases.

Recent advances in hybrid measurement methods based on atomic force microscopy and surface sensitive measurement techniques

This review summaries the recent progress of the combination of optical and non-optical surface sensitive techniques with the atomic force microscopy.