Development of Multifunctional Gold Nanoparticles for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

One of the main pathologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) in the brain. Despite the advancement in imaging technologies, early diagnosis of AD remains a major challenge. Therefore, new approaches for amyloid imaging are highly desirable. This work presents a new strategy for early diagnosis of AD by CT imaging. Our strategy is based on the development of blood brain barrier (BBB) permeable gold nanoparticles (GNPs) that specifically target over expressed insulin receptors on BBB to cross the barrier, and a novel self-assembled cyclic D,L-α-peptide that selectively target early Aβ oligomers and modulates its aggregation and toxicity. We have demonstrated that the multifunctional GNPs can selectively bind Aβ oligomers both in solution and in plaques derived from AD mice model, and reduce Aβ accumulation and toxicity, in vitro. Moreover, our in vivo CT imaging studies, which were performed for different mouse ages and brain Aβ levels, clearly demonstrate specific and early detection of AD.

* M.Sc. research supervised by Prof. Rachela Popovtzer