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A Hyperbranched Dopamine-Containing Peg-Based Polymer For The Inhibition Of Α-Synuclein Fibrillation, Leonid Breydo, Ben Newland, Hong Zhang, Anne Rosser, Carsten Werner, Vladimir N. Uversky, Wenxin Wang

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Aggregation of α-synuclein is believed to play an important role in Parkinson's disease and in other neurodegenerative maladies. Small molecule inhibitors of this process are among the most promising drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. Dendrimers have also been studied for anti-fibrillation applications but they can be difficult and expensive to synthetize. Here we show that RAFT polymerization can be used to produce a hyperbranched polyethylene glycol structure via a one-pot reaction. This polymer included a dopamine moiety, a known inhibitor of α-synuclein fibril formation. Dopamine within the polymer structure was capable of aggregation inhibition, although not to the same degree …