Direct Observation of Aβ Amyloid Fibril Growth and Inhibition

Amyloid fibril formation is a phenomenon common to many proteins and peptides, including amyloid β (Aβ) peptide associated with Alzheimerʹs disease. To clarify the mechanism of fibril formation and to create inhibitors, real-time monitoring of fibril growth is essential. Here, seed-dependent amyloid fibril growth of Aβ(1-40) was visualized in real-time at the single fibril level using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) combined with the binding of thioflavin T, an amyloid-specific fluorescence dye. The clear image and remarkable length of the fibrils enabled an exact analysis of the rate of growth of individual fibrils, indicating that the fibril growth was a highly cooperative process extending the fibril ends at a constant rate. It has been known that Aβ amyloid formation is a stereospecific reaction and the stability is affected by l/d-amino acid replacement. Focusing on these aspects, we designed several analogues of Aβ(25-35), a cytotoxic fragment of Aβ(1-40), consisting of l and d-amino acid residues, and examined their inhibitory effects by TIRFM. Some chimeric Aβ(25-35) peptides inhibited the fibril growth of Aβ(25-35) strongly, although they could not inhibit the growth of Aβ(1-40). The results suggest that a more rational design of stereospecific inhibitors, combined with real-time monitoring of fibril growth, will be useful to invent a potent inhibitor preventing the amyloid fibril growth of Aβ(1-40) and other proteins.