Weighing entire amyloid fibrils by mass spectrometry

Tristan Doussineau, Philippe Dugourd and Rodolphe Antoine (team SpectroBio),in collaboration with colleagues from CEA Grenoble, have published an article entitled «Mass determination of entire amyloid fibrils by using mass spectrometry» in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. This article has been selected as a VIP (" Very Important Paper ") by the editor, and makes the frontispiece of the journal. It is also highlighted by the INP.

Amyloid fibrils attract a large interest because of their involvement in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, and other amyloid-related disorders (so-called amyloidosis). Our group has developed the Charge Detection Mass Spectrometry (CDMS), a single-particle technique where the mass is directly determined from m/z and z measurements for each ion. With this approach, masses can be measured for heterogeneous mixtures of large ions that resist analysis by conventional MS. The weighing of entire fibrils is of primary importance for the characterization of these biological objects which could help for instance to get insight into the role of polymorphism in strain phenomena described in amyloid-related diseases.

22/02/2016