Jude Suchyta
Research Mentor(s): Josh Herzog
Mentor Department: Mechanical Engineering
Authors: Jude Suchyta, Joshua Herzog
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 79
Abstract
Age-related degenerative diseases (ARDDs) like Alzheimer’s affect many people, but we still have a limited understanding of how they form at the chemical level. The kynurenine pathway (KP), a prominent chemical pathway in the body that helps regulate inflammation, metabolism, neurological function, and the immune system, has been implicated in ARDDs. Measurement and tracking of KP metabolites could be exploited to better understand ARDDs at the chemical level, and potentially for earlier detection or diagnosis of ARDDs. This project aims to characterize KP metabolites optically using both experimental and computational techniques to identify robust methods to discriminate between the different chemicals in the kynurenine pathway. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) were used to evaluate optical and vibronic properties of chemicals associated with the KP including kynurenine, formylkynurenine, and kynurenic acid. The vibronic data was then used to simulate absorption and fluorescence spectra, and to identify unique features that could be exploited for spectral detection. Computations were augmented with experimental steady-state, broadband absorption measurements of several chemicals. Our results show that early-stage metabolites can be distinguished optically at wavelengths that are isolated from other major spectral features in blood serum. Development of rapid optical spectroscopy methods to quantify KP metabolites in blood serum at point of care could help researchers better understand ARDDs, or enable earlier detection.
