Molecular basis for amyloid fibril formation and stability

The molecular structure of the amyloid fibril has remained elusive because of the difficulty of growing well diffracting crystals. By using a sequence-designed polypeptide, we have produced crystals of an amyloid fiber. These crystals diffract to high resolution (1 Å) by electron and x-ray diffraction, enabling us to determine a detailed structure for amyloid. The structure reveals that the polypeptides form fibrous crystals composed of antiparallel β-sheets in a cross-β arrangement, characteristic of all amyloid fibers, and allows us to determine the side-chain packing within an amyloid fiber. The antiparallel β-sheets are zipped together by means of π-bonding between adjacent phenylalanine rings and salt-bridges between charge pairs (glutamic acid–lysine), thus controlling and stabilizing the structure. These interactions are likely to be important in the formation and stability of other amyloid fibrils.