Rapid and high-throughput colorimetric screening for anti-aggregation reagents of protein conformational diseases by using gold nanoplasmonic particles

Gold nanoparticles can accelerate protein aggregation as nucleation cores and facilitate monitoring the aggregation process as optical reporters. Here, we demonstrated rapid, high-throughput colorimetric screening method for discovering anti-aggregation reagents from numerous chemicals for protein conformational diseases. Using the gold nanoparticles, we observed colorimetric responses to anti-aggregation effect for amyloid β (implicated in Alzheimer's disease) with the naked eye within a few minutes and quantified the anti-aggregation efficiency by measuring absorbance changes. Furthermore, results obtained with spiked samples in cerebrospinal fluid as well as under various denaturation conditions and different amyloid β compositions show the feasibility of future personalized medicine.205