Microchannel Electrophoresis for the Analysis of Amyloid Protein Oligomers

Amyloids are involved in a variety of diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease and diabetes. A number of technical challenges exist for the quantitative analysis of the different sizes of amyloid proteins which are present during the early stages of aggregation, therefore requiring new technologies to be developed for enhanced protein separations. Microchannel electrophoretic techniques have emerged as powerful tools for the quantitative analysis of proteins. In this study, we investigated the ability of capillary and microchip electrophoresis to monitor the early stages of amyloid aggregation using amyloid beta (Aβ) and amylin as a model amyloid-forming proteins. Sample preparation effected the size of the initial starting material as well and the rate of protein aggregation.  In addition, the use and selection of polymer coating material was found to significantly affect protein loss due to adsorption.  Proteins were photo-crosslinked to explore the ability to resolve individual oligomeric species.