Nanoscale Infrared Spectroscopy Identifies Structural Heterogeneity in Individual Amyloid Fibrils and Prefibrillar Aggregates.

Amyloid plaques are one of the central manifestations of Alzheimer's disease pathology. Aggregation of the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein from amorphous oligomeric species to mature fibrils has been extensively studied. However, structural heterogeneities in prefibrillar species, and how that affects the structure of later-stage aggregates are not yet well understood.