Speaker
Emiliano De Santis
(ROMA2)
Description
The amyloidogenic islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) and the associated pro-peptide ProIAPP1-48 are
involved in cell death in type 2 diabetes mellitus. It has been observed that interactions of this peptide
with metal ions are connected with both the cytotoxicity of the peptides and their deposition as
amyloids fibrils associated. In particular, Cu(II) seems to inhibit amyloid fibril formation, thus
suggesting that Cu homeostasis unbalance may be involved in the type 2 diabetes mellitus
pathogenesis.
We performed X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of Cu(II)-amylin complexes in
physiological concentration conditions, namely at a very low concentration of absorbing atoms, i.e.
10 μM of Cu(II) ions.
Such low concentrations have been faced by exploiting the High Energy Resolved Fluorescence
Detection (HERFD) XAS, as implemented at the ESRF beamline BM16 (FAME-UHD).
Our results demonstrated the feasibility of XAS measurements on ultra-diluted biological samples,
thus making possible experiments very close to the physiological conditions.
Primary author
Emiliano De Santis
(ROMA2)
