Detection & Quantification of Alpha- Synuclein using Fast Field- Cycling Magnetic Resonance Techniques

Saadiya Rashid Ismail^1,2, Sarah Mustafa², Samantha Miller², Tim Rasmussen², David J. Lurie¹, Peter Teismann²

Aggregated proteins are central to several diseases. The aim of this research is to investigate the possibility of detecting and quantifying aggregated protein alpha-synuclein which is implicated in Parkinsons disease, using fast field-cycling (FFC) nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. This technique detects aggregation through the 14N1H quadrupolar relaxation process exhibited as characteristic peaks in the R1 spectrum of water 1H, called quadrupolar peaks. Preliminary results suggest that it may be feasible to produce a quadrupolar signal from aggregated protein alpha-synuclein and further work is being carried out to quantify the protein. This may lead to more information about the disease model.