Congo red (CR) is a commonly used histological amyloid dye and a weak amyloid inhibitor. There is currently no experimentally available structure of CR bound to an amyloid fibril and the binding modes, and the mechanisms governing its inhibitory and optical properties are poorly understood. In this work, we present the first, to our knowledge, atomistically detailed picture of CR binding to pro...

Phase I of this project demonstrated a new technology for silicon carbide fibril growth that would remove some of the previous impediments to the scale-up to a commercial fibril process. The microwave energy approach was designed to heat only the fibril growth balls, reducing the MTS reaction gas quantities needed to feed the fibril growth process. The continuation of this process development c...

alphaB-Crystallin is a small heat-shock protein (sHsp) that is colocalized with alpha-synuclein (alphaSyn) in Lewy bodies—the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease—and is an inhibitor of alphaSyn amyloid fibril formation in an ATP-independent manner in vitro. We have investigated the mechanism underlying the inhibitory action of sHsps, and here we establish, by means of a variety of bio...

alphaB-Crystallin is a small heat-shock protein (sHsp) that is colocalized with alpha-synuclein (alphaSyn) in Lewy bodies-the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease-and is an inhibitor of alphaSyn amyloid fibril formation in an ATP-independent manner in vitro. We have investigated the mechanism underlying the inhibitory action of sHsps, and here we establish, by means of a variety of bio...

Transthyretin (TTR) is a homotetrameric protein involved in human hereditary amyloidoses. The discovery and development of small molecules that inhibit the amyloid fibril formation of TTR is one of the therapeutic strategies for these diseases. Herein, we discovered that γ-mangostin (γ-M) is an effective inhibitor against the amyloid fibril formation of V30M amyloidogenic TTR. In-vitro binding ...

Cellular behavior is strongly influenced by the architecture and pattern of its interfacing extracellular matrix (ECM). For an artificial culture system which could eventually benefit the translation of scientific findings into therapeutic development, the system should capture the key characteristics of a physiological microenvironment. At the same time, it should also enable standardized, hig...

Abstract Structural changes of cellulose microfibrils and microfibril bundles in unmodified spruce cell wall due to drying air were investigated using time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The analysis was supported with dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) measurements quantify the macroscopic kinetics. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations carried out aid understanding molecular-level wo...

Collagen fibril cross-sectional radii show no systematic variation between the interior and the periphery of fibril bundles, indicating an effectively constant rate of collagen incorporation into fibrils throughout the bundle. Such spatially homogeneous incorporation constrains the extracellular diffusion of collagen precursors from sources at the bundle boundary to sinks at the growing fibrils...

This mini-review focuses on the processes and consequences of protein folding and misfolding. The latter process often leads to protein aggregation and precipitation with the aggregates adopting either highly ordered (amyloid fibril) or disordered (amorphous) forms. In particular, the amyloid fibril is discussed because this form has gained considerable notoriety due to its close links to a var...