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Chirality and Chiroptical Properties of Amyloid Fibrils
Author(s) -
Dzwolak Wojciech
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chirality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.43
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1520-636X
pISSN - 0899-0042
DOI - 10.1002/chir.22335
Subject(s) - chirality (physics) , chemistry , circular dichroism , fibril , supramolecular chirality , vibrational circular dichroism , axial chirality , amyloid fibril , crystallography , amyloid β , enantioselective synthesis , biochemistry , crystal structure , supramolecular chemistry , chiral symmetry , physics , catalysis , medicine , disease , pathology , quantum mechanics , nambu–jona lasinio model , quark
Chirality of amyloid fibrils‐linear beta‐sheet‐rich aggregates of misfolded protein chains‐often manifests in morphological traits such as helical twist visible in atomic force microscopy and in chiroptical properties accessible to vibrational circular dichroism (VCD). According to recent studies the relationship between molecular chirality of polypeptide building blocks and superstructural chirality of amyloid fibrils may be more intricate and less deterministic than previously assumed. Several puzzling experimental findings have put into question earlier intuitive ideas on: 1) the bottom‐up chirality transfer upon amyloidogenic self‐assembly, and 2) the structural origins of chiroptical properties of protein aggregates. For example, removal of a single amino acid residue from an amyloidogenic all‐L peptide was shown to reverse handedness of fibrils. On the other hand, certain types of amyloid aggregates revealed surprisingly strong VCD spectra with the sign and shape dependent on the conditions of fibrillation. Hence, microscopic and chiroptical studies have highlighted chirality as one more aspect of polymorphism of amyloid fibrils. This brief review is intended to outline the current state of research on amyloid‐like fibrils from the perspective of their structural and superstructural chirality and chiroptical properties. Chirality 26:580–587, 2014 . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.