Real-time protein aggregation monitoring with a Bloch surface wave-based approach

The misfolding and aggregation of amyloid proteins has been associated with incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. In the specific case of Alzheimer's disease, recent studies have shown that cell toxicity is caused by soluble oligomeric forms of aggregates appearing in the early stages of aggregation, rather than by insoluble fibrils (see Fig.1) [1]. Research on new strategies of diagnosis is imperative to detect the disease prior to the onset of clinical symptoms [2].