Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that predominantly affects the elder population. Leading hypothesis describing the cause of the disease is the amyloid hypothesis, according to which the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease are the extracellular plaques formed in excessive deposition of the amyloid beta peptide (Aβ). Aβ is a peptid, predominantly found in plaques with lengths 1–40 and 1–42, but also in length 25–35. Aβ 1–40 and 1–42 have proved to bind specifically to profilin 1, a vital protein. Profilin 1 regulates actin polymerisation and is crucial for morphology and synaptic plasticity regulation in neurons.
The goal of our master’s thesis was to verify the cytotoxic effect of Aβ peptide of different lengths (1–40, 1–42, 25–35) and forms (monomers and fibrils), and to determine the sublethal concentration for the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line at three time intervals (24, 48 and 72 hours). Cell viability was determined by the MTS colorimetric method. Results showed that Aβ 1–42 peptide is most toxic to cells in both monomeric and fibril forms. Monomers at a concentration as low as 1 µM caused a statistically significant decrease in cell viability after 48 hours, whereas fibrils reacted in the same manner at 2 µM. Similarly, cell microscopy showed the biggest morphological changes in the presence of peptide 1–42. For all three peptides the results have proved that cell survival is concentration- and time-dependent, where cell viability decreases with increasing concentration and longer exposure to the peptide. At given sublethal concentration further analyses were performed to observe the effect on profilin 1 content in cells. Cells were exposed to two different concentrations of both forms of each peptide for 24 hours and profilin 1 and actin content in cell lysates were determined by SDS-PAGE and western blot method. The cellular profilin 1 content was higher for all peptides in monomeric form compared to control samples. Through observation of fibrils, a similar conclusion was formed, with the exception of peptide 1–42 at 100 nM concentration, while fibrils of peptide 25–35 showed a reduced profilin 1 content in cell lysates. Therefore, Aβ could have an effect on the transcription and translation processes of profilin 1, which poses a possibility for further investigation.
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