Novel observation of a circular dichroism band originating from amyloid fibril.

A peptide fragment of a non-amyloid-beta component (NAC(1-13)) was studied by CD and electron microscopy. Typical amyloid fibrils were observed by EM in a solution of NAC(1-13). In addition to the beta-structural CD band in the far-UV region, a novel CD band near 285 nm was observed in a peptide solution of NAC(1-13). Taking the NAC(1-13) to contain neither an aromatic amino acid residue nor cystine into account, the CD band can be attributed to amyloid fibrils of NAC(1-13).