Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

A Tailored HPLC Purification Protocol That Yields High-purity Amyloid Beta 42 and Amyloid Beta 40 Peptides, Capable of Oligomer Formation
Published on: March 27, 2017
Oligomerization of amyloid Abeta16-22 peptides using hydrogen bonds and hydrophobicity forces
Giorgio Favrin1, Anders Irbäck, Sandipan Mohanty
1Complex Systems Division, Department of Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Abstract:
The 16-22 amino-acid fragment of the beta-amyloid peptide associated with the Alzheimer's disease, Abeta, is capable of forming amyloid fibrils. Here we study the aggregation mechanism of Abeta16-22 peptides by unbiased thermodynamic simulations at the atomic level for systems of one, three, and six Abeta16-22 peptides. We find that the isolated Abeta16-22 peptide is mainly a random coil in the sense that both the alpha-helix and beta-strand contents are low, whereas the three- and six-chain systems form aggregated structures with a high beta-sheet content. Furthermore, in agreement with experiments on Abeta16-22 fibrils, we find that large parallel beta-sheets are unlikely to form. For the six-chain system, the aggregated structures can have many different shapes, but certain particularly stable shapes can be identified.
Related Concept Videos
Protein Organization
Protein Folding
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...
Protein Organization
The primary structure of a protein is its amino acid sequence.
Protein Folding
Protein Structure Is Critical to Its Biological Function
Proteins perform a wide range of biological functions such as catalyzing chemical reactions, providing...
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...

