In type 2 diabetes, the formation of islet amyloid consisting of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is associated with reduction in β-cell mass and contributes to the failure of islet cell transplantation. Rational design of inhibitors of IAPP amyloid formation has therapeutic potential, but is hampered by the lack of structural information on inhibitor complexes of the conformationally flexible,...

Aging is the most important risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases associated with pathological protein aggregation such as Alzheimer's disease. Although aging is an important player, it remains unknown which molecular changes are relevant for disease initiation. Recently, it has become apparent that widespread protein aggregation is a common feature of aging. Indeed, several studies demons...

The amyloid protein aggregation associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and type II diabetes (among many others) features a bewildering variety of β-sheet-rich structures in transition from native proteins to ordered oligomers and fibres. The variation in the amino-acid sequences of the β-structures presents a challenge to developing a model system of β-sheets for the study of...

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the abnormal aggregation of amyloid-β into neurotoxic oligomers and plaques. Although many disease-modifying molecules are currently in Alzheimer clinical trials, a small molecule that inhibits amyloid-β aggregation and ameliorates the disorder has not been approved to date. Herein, we report the effects ...

Due to the non-polar nature of carbon nanotubes, their use in aqueous environments is limited. Therefore, auxiliary solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide are used to study the interactions between the amyloid-β peptide and carbon nanotubes. In this work, the interaction of Aβ (1-42), the most effective peptide in the development of Alzheimer's disease, with the carbon nanotube was performed using...

Decoupling conformational changes from aggregation will help us understand amyloids better. Here we attach Alzheimer's amyloid-β(1-40) monomers to silver nanoparticles, preventing their aggregation, and study their conformation under aggregation-favoring conditions using SERS. Surprisingly, the α-helical character of the peptide remains unchanged between pH 10.5 and 5.5, while the solubility ch...

timolol is a non-selective beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist administered for treating glaucoma, heart attacks and hypertension. in the present study, we set out to determine whether or not timolol can provoke cataract formation, thus the influence of timolol on the amyloid-type aggregation of crystallin was investigated. we then provided experimental evidence of crystallin aggregation and it...