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Nanomechanics of functional and pathological amyloid materials

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 469–479 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Amyloid or amyloid-like fibrils represent a general class of nanomaterials that can be formed from many different peptides and proteins. Although these structures have an important role in neurodegenerative disorders, amyloid materials have also been exploited for functional purposes by organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals. Here we review the functional and pathological roles of amyloid materials and discuss how they can be linked back to their nanoscale origins in the structure and nanomechanics of these materials. We focus on insights both from experiments and simulations, and discuss how comparisons between functional protein filaments and structures that are assembled abnormally can shed light on the fundamental material selection criteria that lead to evolutionary bias in multiscale material design in nature.

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Figure 1: The hierarchical structure of amyloid materials.
Figure 2: Classification of amyloid materials.
Figure 3: Mechanical properties of amyloid fibrils in comparison to biological and inorganic or non-biological materials.
Figure 4: Fragmentation, aggregation and the kinetics of amyloid growth.
Figure 5: Examples of functional synthetic amyloid materials.

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Acknowledgements

T.P.J.K. acknowledges support from St John's College, Cambridge. M.J.B. acknowledges support from the Office of Naval Research (YIP and PECASE Awards), National Science Foundation (CAREER), Army Research Office and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. We also acknowledge helpful discussions with D. Kaplan, A. Aguzzi, L. Luheshi, D. White and C. Dobson.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK

    Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave. Room 1-235A&B, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Markus J. Buehler

  3. Center for Computational Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Markus J. Buehler

  4. Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Markus J. Buehler

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Knowles, T., Buehler, M. Nanomechanics of functional and pathological amyloid materials. Nature Nanotech 6, 469–479 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.102

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