Amyloid Proteins From Medullary Thyroid Cancer and Laryngeal Amyloidosis

Using excess tumour samples that contain amyoid, from patients with Medullary Thyroid Cancer, we aim to determine the structures of ex vivo amyloid fibrils from human tumour tissue samples and compare them with that of existing stock of in vitro formed amyloid fibrils. This will permit the analysis of the effects of gene mutation and post-translational modification on the development of amyloid from a disease state. Amyloid is known to accumulate in the brain tissue of patients with neuro-degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Dementia. Therefore solving the structure of amyloid fibrils may aid the development of future treatments for these conditions.

This is an anonymous, voluntary inclusion, laboratory based, basic science research study. Appropriate patients who meet the inclusion criteria and complete the consent process will be asked to donate a small sample of excess tumour tissue after the completion of their surgical procedure. This tissue will be transferred to the research laboratory in Leeds University for analysis and subject to a variety of investigations and scientific procedures to achieve the study objectives. These include: 1. \- amyloid extraction by tissue homogenization and centrifugation as already documented in the literature. 2. \- mass spectrometry analysis to identify and characterize the most prominent proteins present in the amyloid deposits and their possible post-translational modifications. 3. \- Transmission Electron Microscopy to characterize at the gross features of the extracted amyloid fibrils at low resolution (\>20Å). This relatively simple procedure allows for quick characterization of the samples in order to optimize them for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM). 4. \- Atomic Force microscopy to characterize helical parameters of the amyloid fibrils needed to calculate the structure from Cryo-EM data. 5. \- Cryo-Electron Microscopy to elucidate the structure of the amyloids extracted from tissue affected in each disease