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

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 beta-helices are different from those of non-prion nanofibrils formed as right-handed beta-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. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4774296]