Page 369 - Organic Electronics in Sensors and Biotechnology

346 Chapter Nine

(a)

(b) (c)

FIGURE 9.7 (a) Description of the detection of amyloid fi brils in proteins with an
anionic conjugated polyelectrolyte, PTAA. (b) Emission spectra (bottom) of PTAA-
native bovine insulin (Q) and PTAA-amyloid fi brillar bovine insulin (x). (c) Kinetics of
insulin amyloid fi bril formation monitored by PTAA fl uorescence. (Represented with
permission from Ref. 108. Copyright 2005, American Chemical Society.)

form of proteins and the amyloid fibrillar form of proteins. However,
the chemical design of novel LCPs might offer a novel approach to
discriminate between different conformational structures observed
during the amyloid formation processes.
A second generation of LCPs, containing a repetitive trimer block,
was recently presented. 13, 14, 109 Except for just having ionic side chain
functionalities, these molecules also include unsubstituted thiophene
rings which give rise to a greater conformational freedom of the polymer