Saadiya Rashid Ismail1,2, Sarah Mustafa2,
Samantha Miller2, Tim Rasmussen2, David J. Lurie1,
Peter Teismann2
1ABIC, University of
Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom; 2IMS,
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom
Aggregated proteins are central to several diseases. The aim of this research is to investigate the possibility of detecting and quantifying aggregated protein alpha-synuclein which is implicated in Parkinsons disease, using fast field-cycling (FFC) nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. This technique detects aggregation through the 14N1H quadrupolar relaxation process exhibited as characteristic peaks in the R1 spectrum of water 1H, called quadrupolar peaks. Preliminary results suggest that it may be feasible to produce a quadrupolar signal from aggregated protein alpha-synuclein and further work is being carried out to quantify the protein. This may lead to more information about the disease model.