Lomakin Aleksey, Teplow David B
Materials Processing Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2012;849:69-83. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-551-0_6.
Quasielastic light scattering (QLS) spectroscopy is a noninvasive optical method for studying the dynamic properties of macromolecular solutions. Its most important application is the determination of diffusion coefficients, from which the sizes of particles in solution may be estimated. The technique thus is particularly useful for monitoring assembly (polymerization and aggregation) reactions without the need for removing aliquots from the assembly system or disrupting the assembly process in any other way. We discuss here two of the most important aspects of QLS: (1) measurement of the correlation function of the scattered light intensity and (2) the use of this correlation function to reconstruct the distribution of sizes of the scattering particles. The ability to monitor the temporal evolution of particle size provides a powerful tool for studying protein assembly. We illustrate here how QLS has been applied to elucidate features of the oligomerization and fibrillogenesis of the amyloid β-protein, Aβ, thought to be the causative agent of Alzheimer's disease.
准弹性光散射（QLS）光谱法是一种用于研究大分子溶液动力学性质的非侵入性光学方法。其最重要的应用是测定扩散系数，由此可以估算溶液中颗粒的大小。因此，该技术对于监测组装（聚合和聚集）反应特别有用，无需从组装系统中取出等分试样或以任何其他方式破坏组装过程。我们在此讨论QLS的两个最重要方面：（1）散射光强度相关函数的测量，以及（2）使用此相关函数重建散射颗粒大小的分布。监测颗粒大小随时间的演变的能力为研究蛋白质组装提供了一个强大的工具。我们在此说明QLS如何应用于阐明淀粉样β蛋白（Aβ）的寡聚化和纤维形成特征，Aβ被认为是阿尔茨海默病的病原体。
