A team led by the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT Jodhpur) has developed an efficient fluorescent molecular probe that can be used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The research has been carried out in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata.
The research results, an IIT Jodhpur statement said, have been recently published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience journal, in a paper co-authored by Dr Surajit Ghosh, Professor, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Jodhpur along with his research scholars Rathnam Mallesh, Juhee Khan and Rajsekhar Roy and Professor Nihar Ranjan Jana, Head, Department of Biosciences, IIT Kharagpur, Dr. Parasuraman Jaisankar, Head, Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Division, CSIR - Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata and Dr Krishnangsu Pradhan, Senior Research Fellow, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata.
According to the Dementia India Report 2010 by the Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), there will be around 7.6 million Indians with Alzheimer's and other dementia conditions by 2030 in India, IIT Jodhpur statement added. Alzheimer's disease is believed to be caused by the abnormal build-up of plaques in and around brain cells. Plaques are aggregates of a type of small protein (peptide) called amyloid-beta (Aβ).
Highlighting his research, Dr Surajit Ghosh, Professor, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering and Dean, Research and Development, IIT Jodhpur said: “Optical imaging systems that use fluorescent or colour-based chemicals to target tissues and molecules of interest are considered better diagnostic techniques in the biomedical area.” He added that fluorescence probes can enable rapid and safe analytical sensing due to the absence of radioactive chemicals or expensive equipment.
The researchers have successfully designed and developed a series of benzothiazole based fluorescent molecules that can selectively bind to Aβ aggregates. All these molecules were seen to emit fluorescence in one colour when unbound, and the emission colour shifted towards red in the visible light (rainbow – violet indigo blue green yellow orange red) spectrum with a concomitant increase in fluorescence intensity.
