Engineered peptidic constructs metabolize amyloid β by self-assembly-driven reactions.

Inspired by the unique mechanism of proteolytic maturation of host cell factor-1, we designed small peptide-based constructs that selectively recognized amyloid β (Aβ) and cleaved it in a non-catalytic manner initially around the α-secretase cleavage-site, thus termed as “artificial α-secretases”. “Artificial α-secretases” also cleaved Aβ on the cleavage-sites of other Aβ processing enzymes by prolonged treatment, as evidenced by time-resolved MALDI-TOF-mass analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]