Abstract
The spontaneous aggregation of proteins and peptides is widely studied owing to its relation to neurodegenerative diseases. To understand the underlying principles of peptide aggregation, elucidation of structure and structural changes upon their formation is key. This level of detail can be obtained by studying the peptide self-assembly in the gas phase. Structural characterization of aggregates is mainly done on charged species, as adding charges is an intrinsic part of the technique to bring molecules into the gas phase. Studying neutral peptide aggregates will complement the existing picture. These studies are restricted to dimers due to experimental limitations. Herein, we present advances in laser desorption molecular beam spectroscopy to form neutral peptide aggregates consisting of up to 14 monomeric peptides in the gas phase. The combination of this technique with IR–UV spectroscopy allowed us to select each aggregate by size and subsequently characterize its structure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 10537-10541 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Angewandte Chemie - International Edition |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 31 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 29 Jul 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
We gratefully acknowledge the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) for support of the FELIX laboratory and the FELIX team for their support. Calculations were carried out at the SurfSARA Cartesius cluster under NWO Rekentijd contract 16327.
Keywords
- aggregation
- IR spectroscopy
- laser desorption
- peptides
- self-assembly