Emerging Structural Understanding of Amyloid Fibrils by Solid-State NMR

Abstract

Amyloid structures at atomic resolution have remained elusive mainly because of their extensive polymorphism and because their polymeric properties have hampered structural studies by classical approaches. Progress in sample preparation, as well as solid-state NMR methods, recently enabled the determination of high-resolution 3D structures of fibrils such as the amyloid-β fibril, which is involved in Alzheimer's disease. Notably, the simultaneous but independent structure determination of Aβ1-42, a peptide that forms fibrillar deposits in the brain of Alzheimer patients, by two independent laboratories, which yielded virtually identical results, has highlighted how structures can be obtained that allow further functional investigation.

Keywords: NMR; amyloid fibrils; amyloid-β; structure.