The universal structural role of collagen fiber networks has motivated the development of collagen gels, films, coatings, injectables, and other formulations. However, reported synthetic collagen fiber fabrication schemes have either culminated in short, discontinuous fiber segments at unsuitably low production rates, or have incompletely replicated the internal fibrillar structure that dictate...

Decorin (DCN), an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, belongs to the small leucine-rich proteoglycan family. As a pluripotent molecule, DCN regulates the bioactivities of cell growth factors and participates in ECM assembly. Accumulating evidence has shown that DCN acts as a ligand of various cytokines and growth factors by directly or indirectly interacting with the corresponding signalling mo...

The heat shock protein Hsp104 has been reported to possess the ability to modulate protein aggregation and toxicity and to "catalyze" the disaggregation and recovery of protein aggregates, including amyloid fibrils, in yeast, Escherichia coli, mammalian cell cultures, and animal models of Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. To provide mechanistic insight into the molecular mechanisms ...

We report herein the application of kinetically inert luminescent iridium(III) complexes as dual inhibitors and probes of beta-amyloid fibrillogenesis. These iridium(III) complexes inhibited Aβ1-40 peptide aggregation in vitro, and protected against Aβ-induced cytotoxicity in neuronal cells. Furthermore, the complexes differentiated between the aggregated and unaggregated forms of Aβ1-40 peptid...

Paradigm-shifting advances have revealed that diverse membraneless organelles originate via liquid-liquid phase separation, but how their distinct structural and functional milieux are specified is not understood. Recent work elucidates that RNA governs the biophysical characteristics of liquid droplets formed by RNA-binding proteins with low-complexity domains and can decelerate pathogenic fib...

This review concentrates on the molecular pathology of the protein tau, including its expression in various regions of the brain. The role of post-translational modifications in fibrillogenesis is also discussed, particularly hyperphosphorylation and glycation. However, the initiating event that causes aberrant tau processing remains unclear.

Collagen molecules can selfassemble from dilute solutions into axially ordered fibrils similar to those seen in vivo in tendon and skin. At neutral pH the self-assembly has a negative temperature coefficient, thus molecules can be held in solution at 4-15 C; a temperature jump to 25-30 C will then lead to fibrillogenesis under controlled conditions. Two experiments have been carried out under...