Title
Femtosecond-Laser-Enhanced Amyloid Fibril Formation of Insulin
Author
Tsung-Han Liu, Ken-ichi Yuyama, Takato Hiramatsu, Naoki Yamamoto, Eri Chatani, Hiroshi Miyasaka, Teruki Sugiyama, Hiroshi Masuhara
Year
2017
Journal
Langmuir
Abstract
Femtosecond (fs)-laser-induced crystallization as a novel crystallization technique was proposed for the first time by our group, where the crystallization time can be significantly shortened under fs laser irradiation. Similarly, we have further extended our investigation to amyloid fibril formation, also known as a nucleation-dependence process. Here we demonstrate that the necessary time for amyloid fibril formation can be significantly shortened by fs laser irradiation, leading to favorable enhancement. The enhancement was confirmed by both spectral measurements and direct observations of amyloid fibrils. The thioflavin T fluorescence intensity of laser-irradiated solution increased earlier than that of the control solution, and such a difference was simultaneously revealed by ellipticity changes. At the same time before intensity saturation in fluorescence, the number of amyloid fibrils obtained under laser irradiation was generally more than that in the control solution. Besides, such an enhancement is correlated to the laser power threshold of cavitation bubbling. Possible mechanisms are proposed by referring to fs-laser-induced crystallization and ultrasonication-induced amyloid fibril formation.
Instrument
J-815
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Aggregation, Biochemistry