A team from led by and Prof. Damien Thompson in the Physics department at the 51本色 was able to show how the protein takes on an unusual shape when exposed to large amounts of copper ions. The findings could help develop new strategies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
Physicochemical modelling of copper-associated 伪-厂测苍耻肠濒别颈苍 protein aggregates revealed two distinct Parkinson鈥檚 disease-causing protein assembly populations at the gold-water interface. These copper-rich protofibrils seed the formation of annular ring-like deposits detected in the brain of Parkinson鈥檚 patients. The models were developed by Dr Shayon Bhattacharya with , SSPC Director and Modelling Theme Leader as part of in neurodegeneration and the results were published this year in in collaboration with experimentalists at Empa in Switzerland led by TCD alumnus Peter Nirmalraj.
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Cover art published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience journal (Volume 13, Issue 9) showing copper ions at an elevated concentration trigger annular 伪-synuclein oligomeric aggregates.