Elucidating pathological fibril structure: Amyloid-β (Aβ) is a key pathological contributor to Alzheimer's disease. Gremer et al. used cryoelectron microscopy data to build a high-quality de novo atomic model of Aβ fibrils (see the Perspective by Pospich and Raunser). The complete structure reveals all 42 amino acids (including the entire N terminus) and provides a structural basis for understanding the effect of several disease-causing and disease-preventing mutations. The fibril consists of two intertwined protofilaments with an unexpected dimer interface that is different from those proposed previously. The structure has implications for the mechanism of fibril growth and will be an important stepping stone to rational drug design. Science , this issue p. 116 ; see also p. 45

One of the principal peptide components of the amyloid plaque deposits of Alzheimer's disease in humans is the 40‐amino‐acid peptide β‐amyloid A4‐(1–40)‐peptide. The full‐length A4‐(1–40)‐peptide was chemically synthesized and the solution structure determined by two‐dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and restrained molecular‐dynamics calculations. Synthetic human A4‐(1–40)‐peptide was soluble and non‐aggregating for several days in 40% (by vol.) trifluoroethanol/water. All spin systems could be unambiguously assigned, and a total of 203 sequential and medium‐range cross‐peaks were found in the NOESY (nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy) spectrum. Long‐range NOE cross‐peaks that would indicate tertiary structure of the peptide were absent. The main secondary‐structure elements found by chemical‐shift analysis, sequential and medium‐range NOESY data, and NOE‐based restrained molecular‐dynamics calculations were two helices, Gln15–Asp23 and IIe31–Met35, whereas the rest of the peptide was in random‐coil conformation. A similar secondary structure is suggested for the aggregation part of prions, the postulated causative agents of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. The sequence of the helical part of prion proteins was observed to be remarkably similar to the sequence of the helical part of human A4‐(1–40)‐peptide.

Dual-focus fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is a method for precisely measuring the diffusion coefficient of fluorescing molecules close to the infinite dilution limit in a reference- free and absolute manner. We apply the method to determine the diffusion coefficients of three fluorescent dyes across the visible spectrum. These values can be used as absolute reference standards for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. In particular, it is found that the diffusion coefficient of the widely used reference dye Rhodamine 6G is by 37% larger than the value used in most publications on fluorescence correlation spectroscopy over the last three decades. Copyright c �EPLA, 2008

This review will focus on the process of amyloid-type protein aggregation. Amyloid fibrils are an important hallmark of protein misfolding diseases and therefore have been investigated for decades. Only recently, however, atomic or near-atomic resolution structures have been elucidated from various in vitro and ex vivo obtained fibrils. In parallel, the process of fibril formation has been studied in vitro under highly artificial but comparatively reproducible conditions. The review starts with a summary of what is known and speculated from artificial in vitro amyloid-type protein aggregation experiments. A partially hypothetic fibril selection model will be described that may be suitable to explain why amyloid fibrils look the way they do, in particular, why at least all so far reported high resolution cryo-electron microscopy obtained fibril structures are in register, parallel, cross-β-sheet fibrils that mostly consist of two protofilaments twisted around each other. An intrinsic feature of the model is the prion-like nature of all amyloid assemblies. Transferring the model from the in vitro point of view to the in vivo situation is not straightforward, highly hypothetic, and leaves many open questions that need to be addressed in the future.

Autophagy, a pathway primarily relevant for cell survival, and apoptosis, a process invariably leading to cell death, are the two main mechanisms of cellular self-destruction, which are essential i...