Graphene Oxide Attenuates Toxicity of Amyloid-β Aggregates in Yeast by Promoting Disassembly and Boosting Cellular Stress Response

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, with the aggregation of misfolded amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides in the brain being one of its histopathological hallmarks. Recently, graphene oxide (GO) nanoflakes have attracted significant attention in biomedical areas due to their capacity of suppressing Aβ aggregation in vitro. The mechanism of this beneficial effect has not been fully understood in vivo. Herein, the impact of GO on intracellular Aβ42 aggregates and cytotoxicity is investigated using yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the model organism. This study finds that GO nanoflakes can effectively penetrate yeast cells and reduce Aβ42 toxicity. Combination of proteomics data and follow-up experiments show that GO treatment alters cellular metabolism to increases cellular resistance to misfolded protein stress and oxidative stress, and reduces amounts of intracellular Aβ42 oligomers. Additionally, GO treatment also reduces HTT103QP toxicity in the Huntington's disease (HD) yeast model. The findings offer insights for rationally designing GO nanoflakes-based therapies for attenuating cytotoxicity of Aβ42, and potentially of other misfolded proteins involved in neurodegenerative pathology.