Enhanced Photoresponsive Graphene oxide-modified g-C3N4 for Disassembly of Amyloid β Fibrils

摘要： Protein misfolding and abnormal self-assembly lead to the aggregates of oligomer, fibrils, or senior amyloid β plaques, which is associated with the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative diseases. Progressive cerebral accumulation of amyloid β-protein (Aβ) was widely proposed to explain the cause of Alzheimer's disease, for which one promising direction of preclinical study is to convert the pre-formed β-sheet structure of amyloid β aggregates into innocent structures. However, the conversion is even harder than the modulation of amyloidosis process. Herein, graphene oxide/carbon nitride (GO/g-C3N4) composite was developed as a good photocatalyst for irreversibly disassembling the amyloid β aggregates of Aβ (33-42) under UV. Quartz crystal microbalance, circular dichroism spectrum, atomic force microscopy, fluorescent spectra, and mechanical property analysis were performed to analyze this photo-degradation process from different aspects for fully understanding the mechanism, which may provide an important enlightenment for the relevant research in this field and neurodegenerative disease study.