title: Graphene quantum dots for detecting monomeric amyloid peptides.
abstract: Detection of the concentration of amyloid monomers is of great importance in the diagnosis of amyloidogenesis. Herein, we propose a method to detect the concentration of amyloid β (Aβ) peptide monomers by utilizing the fluorescence characteristics of graphene quantum dots (GQDs). The linear dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of GQDs on the Aβ monomer concentration can be identified. It can be further illustrated that both monomeric and fibrillar Aβ peptides can be monitored by using GQDs. Conventional fluorescent dyes, such as thioflavin T (ThT), usually undergo co-incubation with amyloid peptides, which could lead to disturbance of the aggregation because of their inhibitory effect. Similar Aβ aggregation dynamics observed by using GQDs and ThT demonstrated the feasibility of the GQD-based detection method without co-incubation with soluble amyloid peptide monomers. The utilization of GQDs as a novel probe monitoring amyloid monomers could be applied in pathological detection and diagnosis of degenerative diseases and other conformational disorders.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China. yangyl@nanoctr.cn wangch@nanoctr.cn.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yuhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Huaiyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yanlian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000682:Amyloid; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006108:Graphite; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000032:analysis*; D045663:Quantum Dots
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C075222:amyloid beta-protein (1-42); D006108:Graphite