Design of a Peptide Undergoing α-β Structural Transition and Amyloid Fibrillogenesis by the Introduction of a Hydrophobic Defect

The misfolding process of the amyloidogenic proteins such as prion proteins is mimicked by the α- to β-structural transition of a peptide obtained by introducing adamantanecarbonyl groups at the N-terminals of two linked α-helices. The α- to β-transition (left to right of graph) coincided with the formation of fibrils (inset, bottom right), which further assembled into larger amyloid deposits.