Linnaeite Mineral for NIR Light-Triggered Disruption of Alzheimer's Pore-Forming Aβ Oligomers

Minerals in the Earth's crust have contributed to the natural functioning of ecosystems via biogeochemical interactions. Linnaeite is a cobalt sulfide mineral with a cubic spinel structure that promotes charge transfer reactions with its surroundings. Here we report the hidden feature of linnaeite mineral to dissociate Alzheimer's β-amyloid (Aβ) oligomers under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the abnormal accumulation of self-assembled Aβ peptides in the elderly brain. The β-sheet structured pore-forming Aβ oligomer (βPFO) is the most neurotoxic species exacerbating the symptoms of AD. However, a therapeutic agent that is capable of inactivating βPFO has not yet been developed. Our microscopic and spectroscopic analysis results have revealed that NIR-excited linnaeite mineral can modulate the structure of βPFO by inducing oxidative modifications. We have verified that linnaeite mineral is biocompatible with and has a mitigating effect on the neurotoxicity of βPFO. This study suggests that minerals in nature have potential as drugs to reduce AD pathology.

Self-induced incipient 'eclogitization' of metagranitoids at closed-system conditions

The incipient development of diagnostic high-pressure assemblages-the 'eclogitization'-of granitoids, such as plagioclase breakdown and small-scale formation of garnet and phengite does not require exogenous hydration because unlike dry protoliths like basalt/gabbro or granulite, granitoids s . l . contain crystallographically bound H2O in biotite. During high-pressure overprint, partial biotite breakdown causes a localized increase in the chemical potential of H2O (μH2O). Transport of H2O into nearby plagioclase induces the formation of diagnostic eclogite facies assemblages of jadeite-zoisite-K-feldspar-quartz ± kyanite ± phengite that pervasively replace former cm-sized plagioclase without requiring the participation of free H2O. Depending on pressure-temperature evolution, similar textures may involve albite instead of jadeite, consistent with the general absence of Na-clinopyroxene in high-pressure metagranitoids and kindred gneisses. Plagioclase breakdown may also occur due to simple burial because compression leads to an increase of μH2O, without requiring additional influx of H2O at the texture scale. However, the addition of biotite-derived H2O into plagioclase sites likely increases reaction rates. In parallel, ∼100-μm-thick complementary coronae involving garnet | phengite-quartz develop at former biotite-plagioclase/K-feldspar interfaces due to the coupled diffusion of FeO-MgO-H2O from biotite towards feldspars and minor CaO in the opposite direction. The reaction textures likely create structural weaknesses and preferential fluid pathways that facilitate further hydration and/or deformation along the prograde path, thereby obliterating the textures. If exogenous H2O is introduced, it is accommodated in phengite growing at the expense of igneous K-feldspar and possibly in epidote-group minerals. Upon decompression, such hydrated rocks would dehydrate, thereby favouring fluid-assisted retrogression and loss of diagnostic eclogite facies assemblages at lower pressure. Whereas the prograde reaction textures are only preserved at closed-system conditions and in the absence of deformation, they are suggested to commonly form during orogenic metamorphism of granitoids and quartzofeldspathic gneisses that dominate the continental crust in high-pressure terranes such as the Western Italian Alps and the Western Gneiss Region (Norway).

Localized and chaotic folding: the role of axial plane structures

Most natural fold systems are not sinusoidal in profile. A widely held view is that such irregularity derives solely from inherited initial geometrical perturbations. Although, undoubtedly, initial perturbations can contribute to irregularity, we explore a different (but complementary) view in which the irregular geometry results from some material or system softening process. This arises because the buckling response of a layer (or layers) embedded in a weaker matrix is controlled in a sensitive manner by the nature of the reaction forces exerted by the deforming matrix on the layer. In many theoretical treatments of the folding problem, this reaction force is assumed to be a linear function of some measure of the deformation or deformation rate. This paper is concerned with the influence of nonlinear reaction forces such as arise from nonlinear elasticity or viscosity. Localized folds arising from nonlinearity form in a fundamentally different way than the Biot wavelength selection process. As a particular example of nonlinear behaviour, we examine the influence of axial plane structures made up of layers of different mineralogy formed by chemical differentiation processes accompanying the deformation; they are referred to as metamorphic layering. The alternating mineralogical composition in the metamorphic layers means that the embedding matrix exerts a reaction force on the folded layers that varies not only with the deflection or the velocity of deflection of the layer, but also in a periodic manner along the length of the folded layers. The influence of this spatially periodic reaction force on the development of localized and chaotic folding is explored numerically.

The mechanics of granitoid systems and maximum entropy production rates

A model for the formation of granitoid systems is developed involving melt production spatially below a rising isotherm that defines melt initiation. Production of the melt volumes necessary to form granitoid complexes within 10(4)-10(7) years demands control of the isotherm velocity by melt advection. This velocity is one control on the melt flux generated spatially just above the melt isotherm, which is the control valve for the behaviour of the complete granitoid system. Melt transport occurs in conduits initiated as sheets or tubes comprising melt inclusions arising from Gurson-Tvergaard constitutive behaviour. Such conduits appear as leucosomes parallel to lineations and foliations, and ductile and brittle dykes. The melt flux generated at the melt isotherm controls the position of the melt solidus isotherm and hence the physical height of the Transport/Emplacement Zone. A conduit width-selection process, driven by changes in melt viscosity and constitutive behaviour, operates within the Transport Zone to progressively increase the width of apertures upwards. Melt can also be driven horizontally by gradients in topography; these horizontal fluxes can be similar in magnitude to vertical fluxes. Fluxes induced by deformation can compete with both buoyancy and topographic-driven flow over all length scales and results locally in transient 'ponds' of melt. Pluton emplacement is controlled by the transition in constitutive behaviour of the melt/magma from elastic-viscous at high temperatures to elastic-plastic-viscous approaching the melt solidus enabling finite thickness plutons to develop. The system involves coupled feedback processes that grow at the expense of heat supplied to the system and compete with melt advection. The result is that limits are placed on the size and time scale of the system. Optimal characteristics of the system coincide with a state of maximum entropy production rate.

The spatial and temporal patterning of the deep crust and implications for the process of melt extraction

Volumetrically significant melt production requires crustal temperatures above approximately 800 °C. At the grain scale, the former presence of melt may be inferred based on various microstructures, particularly pseudomorphs of melt pores and grain-boundary melt films. In residual migmatites and granulites, evidence of melt-extraction pathways at outcrop scale is recorded by crystallized products of melt (leucosome) and residual material from which melt has drained (melanosome). These features form networks or arrays that potentially demonstrate the temporal and spatial relations between deformation and melting. As melt volume increases at sites of initial melting, the feedback between deformation and melting creates a dynamic rheological environment owing to localization and strain-rate weakening. With increasing temperature, melt volume increases to the melt connectivity transition, in the range of 2-7 vol% melt, at which point melt may escape in the first of several melt-loss events, where each event represents a batch of melt that left the source and ascended higher in the crust. Each contributing process has characteristic length and time scales, and it is the nonlinear interactions and feedback relations among them that give rise to the dissipative structures and episodicity of melt-extraction events that are recorded as variations in the spatial and temporal patterning of the crust. Focused melt flow occurs by dilatant shear failure of low-melt fraction rocks creating melt-flow networks that allow accumulation and storage of melt, and form the link for melt flow from grain boundaries to veins allowing drainage to crustal-scale ascent conduits. Preliminary indications suggest that anatectic systems are strongly self-organized from the bottom up, becoming more ordered by decreasing the number and increasing the width of ascent conduits from the anatectic zone through the overlying subsolidus crust to the ductile-to-brittle transition zone, where the melt accumulates in plutons.