Single-Molecule Orientation Imaging Reveals the Nano-Architecture of Amyloid Fibrils Undergoing Growth and Decay

Amyloid-beta $$ aggregates are characteristic signatures of Alzheimer's disease, but probing how their nanoscale architectures influence their growth and decay remains challenging using current technologies. Here, we apply time-lapse single-molecule orientation-localization microscopy (SMOLM) to measure the orientations and rotational "wobble" of Nile blue (NB) molecules transiently binding to $$ fibrils. We quantify correlations between fibril architectures, measured by SMOLM, and their growth and decay visualized by single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM). We discover that stable $$ fibrils tend to be well-ordered, signified by well-aligned NB orientations and small wobble. SMOLM also shows that increasing order and disorder are signatures of growing and decaying $$ fibrils, respectively. We also observe SMLM-invisible fibril remodeling, including steady growth and decay patterns that conserve $$-sheet organization. SMOLM reveals that increased heterogeneity in fibril architectures is correlated with more dynamic remodeling and that large-scale fibril remodeling tends to originate from local regions that exhibit strong heterogeneity.