Jang Jinhyeong, Park Chan Beum
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 335 Science Road, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
Sci Adv. 2022 May 13;8(19):eabn1675. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn1675. Epub 2022 May 11.
The abnormal self-assembly of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides and their deposition in the brain is a major pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most prevalent chronic neurodegenerative disease affecting nearly 50 million people worldwide. Here, we report a newly discovered function of magnetoelectric nanomaterials for the dissociation of highly stable Aβ aggregates under low-frequency magnetic field. We synthesized magnetoelectric BiFeO-coated CoFeO (BCFO) nanoparticles, which emit excited charge carriers in response to low-frequency magnetic field without generating heat. We demonstrated that the magnetoelectric coupling effect of BCFO nanoparticles successfully dissociates Aβ aggregates via water and dissolved oxygen molecules. Our cytotoxicity evaluation confirmed the alleviating effect of magnetoelectrically excited BCFO nanoparticles on Aβ-associated toxicity. We found high efficacy of BCFO nanoparticles for the clearance of microsized Aβ plaques in ex vivo brain tissues of an AD mouse model. This study shows the potential of magnetoelectric materials for future AD treatment using magnetic field.
β-淀粉样蛋白（Aβ）肽的异常自组装及其在大脑中的沉积是阿尔茨海默病（AD）的主要病理特征，AD是全球最常见的慢性神经退行性疾病，影响着近5000万人。在此，我们报告了磁电纳米材料在低频磁场下解离高度稳定的Aβ聚集体的新发现功能。我们合成了磁电BiFeO包覆的CoFeO（BCFO）纳米颗粒，其在低频磁场作用下发射激发电荷载流子而不产生热量。我们证明了BCFO纳米颗粒的磁电耦合效应通过水和溶解氧分子成功地解离了Aβ聚集体。我们的细胞毒性评估证实了磁电激发的BCFO纳米颗粒对Aβ相关毒性的缓解作用。我们发现BCFO纳米颗粒在AD小鼠模型的离体脑组织中清除微米级Aβ斑块方面具有高效性。这项研究显示了磁电材料在未来利用磁场治疗AD方面的潜力。
