NanoIR Featured Publications

Infrared Nanospectroscopy Characterization of Oligomeric and Fibrillar Aggregates During Amyloid Formation

July 28, 2015
Authors

F. S. Ruggeri, G. Longo, S. Faggiano, E. Lipiec, A. Pastore and G. Dietler

Abstract 

Amyloids are insoluble protein fibrillar aggregates. The importance of characterizing their aggregation has steadily increased because of their link to human diseases and material science applications. Here we individually characterize the oligomeric and fibrillar species formed along the amyloid aggregation. We describe their secondary structure, monitoring at the nanoscale an α-to-β transition, and couple these studies with an independent measurement of the evolution of their intrinsic stiffness. These results suggest that the aggregation of Josephin proceeds from the monomer state to the formation of spheroidal intermediates with a native structure. Only successively, these intermediates evolve into misfolded aggregates and into the final fibrils.