Background Amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers induce the overproduction of phosphorylated tau and neurodegeneration. These cascades gradually cause cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While each pathological event AD has been studied detail separately, spatial temporal relationships between events remain unclear. We demonstrated that lipid rafts function as a common platform for AD. Method ...

The process by which hundreds of identical capsid proteins self-assemble into icosahedral structures is complex and poorly understood. Establishing constraints on the assembly pathways is crucial to building reliable theoretical models. For example, it is currently an open question to what degree overall assembly kinetics are dominated by one or a few most efficient pathways versus the enormous...

alpha-synuclein is a key molecule in the pathogenesis of synucleinopathy including Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy. In this mini-review, we mainly focus on recent data obtained from cellular models of synucleinopathy and discuss the possible mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Recent progress suggests that the aggregate formation of alpha-synuclein is cytoprotective and that its pr...

Abstract. Absorption spectra of small molecular aggregates (oligomers) are considered. The dipole-dipole interaction between the monomers leads to shifts of the oligomer spectra with respect to the monomer absorption. The line-shapes of monomer as well as oligomer absorption depend strongly on the coupling to vibrational modes. Using a recently developed approach [Roden et. al, PRL 103, 058301]...

A mechanism of the translation in oligomer world is proposed. The translation is carried out by a minimum cycle, which is sustained by adaptors and helicases, and the first information processing in oligomer world. We expect that such a cycle actually worked in a primitive cell and can be constructed in vitro. By computer simulation we have shown that a proofreading is achieved by the fluctuati...

This work encompasses the development of low-viscosity cyclic oligomer underfill formulations that cure without heat evolution. Boron nitride, silica-coated aluminum nitride, and alumina ceramic powders were used as fillers in cyclic butylene terephthalate oligomer melts. The melts were heated with a suitable catalyst to induce polymerization. The effects of the filler type and composition on t...

The dynamics of oligomer desorption from surfaces has been studied by measuring the desorption kinetics of a set of straight chain alkanes [ H(CH2)(n)H, with n = 5 to 60] from the surface of single crystalline graphite. Desorption is observed to be a first-order process and the preexponent of the desorption rate constant has a value nu = 10(19.6+/-0.5) sec(-1) and is independent of the oligomer...

T4 induced RNA ligase will join equimolar concentrations of two oligoribonucleotides, (Ap)3C and p(Up) 5, to form a single product, (Ap)3Cp(Up) 5, in high yield. The presence of the 3' phosphate on p(Up)5 prevents the oligomer from adding to itself. The pH optimum of the reaction is about 7.5, but less of the undesirable adenylated intermediate, App(Up) 5, forms at pH 8.2. The reaction rate is...