A short water-soluble self-assembling peptide forms amyloid-like fibrils

Abstract

A water-soluble tripeptide Val–Ile–Ala (VIA) 1, bearing sequence identity with the C-terminal portion of the Alzheimer Aβ-peptide (Aβ_40–42), self-assembles, in crystalline form, to produce an intermolecularly hydrogen bonded supramolecular β-sheet structure which self-associates to form straight, unbranched nanofibrils exhibiting amyloid-like behavior; in contrast, the synthetic tripeptide Ala–Val–Ile (AVI) 2 self-assembles to produce a β-sheet structure that forms branched nanofibrils which do not show any characteristic features of amyloid-like fibrils.