Analysis of vibrational modes from alpha-synuclein: a theoretical model using density functional theory and Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology difficult to diagnose. Researches have confirmed the presences of death cells in the brain produced by the modification of a protein called alpha-synuclein synuclein in people with Parkinson disease. Currently, a great amount of research is conducted to identify its biomarkers for early diagnostics. Recently, a studio found differences between the alpha- synuclein of the skin from Parkinson’s disease and normal patients. In this paper, we use Raman spectroscopy through a numerical model to simulate the vibrational modes of well-defined finite clusters of alpha-synuclein in normal and pathological state, using the Gaussian09 software. The results of the model in the range of x − y cm−1 are in good agreement with the experimental Raman spectra acquired from human skin with alpha-synuclein in the normal and pathological state.