Determining the Efficacy of Polyphenols in Inhibiting the Aggregation of Amyloid Beta Proteins

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease is caused by an aggregation of amyloid beta and tau proteins in the brain. Polyphenols, a broad class of naturally-existing compounds, have been shown to inhibit the aggregation of those proteins. This project aims to focus on expressing different combinations of those proteins, as well as assaying those proteins for aggregation inhibition using polyphenols such as curcumin, caffeic acid, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and more to determine which polyphenol is most effective in doing so. We chose to use these polyphenols because of their past precedence in other work, along with their widespread prevalence. However, this project focused more on the biological and in-vitro aspect of polyphenols inhibiting amyloid beta, such as conducting multiple assays including Congo Red, Avoidance, and Dynamic Light Scattering in order to receive tangible results. Through our studies, we found that polyphenols do produce an inhibitory effect on the aggregation of amyloid-beta.