Emergence of visible light optical properties of L-phenylalanine aggregates

PeerJ

article

Mantas Ziaunys¹  Vytautas Smirnovas¹ 

[1] Vilnius University, Life Sciences Center, Institute of Biotechnology

关键词: Amyloid;    Phenylalanine;    Aggregation;    Spectroscopy;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.6518

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The ability of phenylalanine to form fibrillar nanostructures was demonstrated on multiple occasions, and such an oligomerization reaction could be the cause of cytotoxicity in patients with phenylketonuria. These findings were supported by claims that L-phenylalanine (Phe) fibrils have amyloid properties and can be detected using thioflavin T fluorescence assay. However, a part of Phe aggregation studies reported the opposite data, suggesting no amyloid structures to be formed. Due to the contradicting reports, the amyloid nature of Phe aggregates remains uncertain. In this work we tested Phe aggregation under conditions where amyloid formation was previously reported. We show the emergence of Phe aggregates with visible light optical properties that overlap with the spectra of dyes used in amyloid fibril assays, which could lead to false-positive identifications.

【 授权许可】

CC BY