Biomimetically Engineered Amyloid-Shelled Gold Nanocomplexes for Discovering α‑Synuclein Oligomer-Degrading Drugs

Dongtak Lee, Hyo Gi Jung, Dongsung Park, Junho Bang, Ji Hye Hong, Sang Won Lee, Seokbeom Roh, Jae Won Jang, Yonghwan Kim, Kyo Seon Hwang, Young Sun Lee, Jae Yong Park, In Duk Jung, Jeong Hoon Lee, Gyudo Lee, Dae Sung Yoon

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The assembly of α-synuclein (αS) oligomers is recognized as the main pathological driver of synucleinopathies. While the elimination of toxic αS oligomers shows promise for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the discovery of αS oligomer degradation drugs has been hindered by the lack of proper drug screening tools. Here, we report a drug screening platform for monitoring the efficacy of αS-oligomer-degrading drugs using amyloid-shelled gold nanocomplexes (ASGNs). We fabricate ASGNs in the presence of dopamine, mimicking the in vivo generation process of pathological αS oligomers. To test our platform, the first of its kind for PD drugs, we use αS-degrading proteases and various small molecular substances that have shown efficacy in PD treatment. We demonstrate that the ASGN-based in vitro platform has strong potential to discover effective αS-oligomer-targeting drugs, and thus it may reduce the attrition problem in drug discovery for PD treatment.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2538-2551
    Number of pages14
    JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
    Volume15
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2023

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022 American Chemical Society.

    Keywords

    • Parkinson’s disease
    • amyloid corona
    • drug screening
    • plasmonic nanoparticle
    • α-synuclein

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Materials Science

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Biomimetically Engineered Amyloid-Shelled Gold Nanocomplexes for Discovering α‑Synuclein Oligomer-Degrading Drugs'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this