A Korean research team has developed a technology to decompose the ‘beta-amyloid peptide’ aggregate in the brain, which is known to cause Alzheimer’s disease, with a magnetic field.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 16th that a team led by Professor Chan-beom Park of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed low-frequency magnetic field-responsive nanoparticles and can decompose beta-amyloid peptides with a magnetic field using them.
Amyloid aggregates are commonly observed in patients with various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. It has a very stable secondary protein structure by forming regular hydrogen bonds. For this reason, it has been known that decomposition is difficult.
The research team developed heterogeneous magnetoelectric nanoparticles by bonding ‘cobalt ferrite’ and ‘bismuth ferrite’, which are a type of magnetoelectric material, mainly used in semiconductor and battery fields, into a ‘core-shell’ structure in which the central material is surrounded by other materials. . By uniformly bonding different magneto-electric materials, a ‘magneto-piezoelectric effect’ was created that responds to low-frequency magnetic fields at these interfaces.
When a low-frequency magnetic field was applied to the nanoparticles developed by the research team, the beta-amyloid peptide was oxidized and decomposed by weakening the binding force of the aggregate. The team observed that it could also neutralize neurotoxicity.
Professor Chan-beom Park said, “Low-frequency magnetic field-responsive nanomaterials have low toxicity and can efficiently decompose amyloid aggregates by reacting with magnetic fields, so they have the potential to be expanded to the medical field. Animal experiments using
Meanwhile, this research was carried out with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT Leader Researcher Support Project (Creative Research).
Jinhyeong Jang, Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, participated as the first author, and this research was published on the 13th of the international scientific journal ‘Science Advances’.
By Kim Young-jun, staff reporter [email protected]