Relationship between disease-specific structures of amyloid fibrils and their mechanical properties

Gwonchan Yoon, Young Gab Kim, Kilho Eom*, Sungsoo Na*

ABSTRACT

It has recently been reported that the mechanical behavior of prion nanofibrils may play a critical role in expression of neurodegenerative diseases. In this work, we have studied the mechanical behavior of HET-s prion nanofibrils using an elastic network model. We have shown that the mechanical properties of prion nanofibrils formed as left-handed β-helices are different from those of non-prion nanofibrils formed as right-handed β-helices. In particular, the bending behavior of prion nanofibrils depends on the length of the nanofibril and that the bending rigidity of the prion nanofibril is larger than that of the non-prion nanofibril. 

This paper was published at Applied Physics Letters, and you may read the full text of an article linked here .