Studying the Transport Rate of Rhodamine 123 By P-Glycoprotein

Alzheimer’s disease is an illness that has taken hold of the lives of over 3 million Americans. This neurodegenerative disease causes affected individuals to experience a cognitive decline, and a lack of memory retention. The buildup of amyloid- ß protein in neuronal cells is a likely cause of Alzheimer’s. While most research experiments concerning Alzheimer’s disease focus on the more aggressive stages of the illness, the goal of this research was to increase the transport rate of amyloid- ß proteins out of the brain cells using P-glycoprotein. A buffered mixture of P-glycoprotein, ATP, and the fluorescent tag Rhodamine 123 was combined in a cuvette and analyzed by fluorometry. The goal was to find the ideal concentration of these substrates to maximize the stability of P-gp and ultimately increase the transport of amyloid- ß proteins out of brain cells. Unexpectedly a lower concentration of ATP (3.75 mm), with a constant concentration of Rhodamine 123, was most effective