Fibril Structure and Fibrillogenesis

Amyloid fibrils are protein aggregates with a characteristic cross-β structure found in association with many human diseases. This chapter begins with a review of some basics of protein biochemistry and the theory of amyloid formation. The rest of the chapter focuses on the biophysical understanding of amyloid formation, touching on the kinetics and thermodynamics of fibril formation, different tools that can be used to probe fibril formation, and current theories on the mechanism of fibril formation. Finally, we discuss current structural approaches for the study of amyloid fibrils and several structural models that have been proposed as a result of these studies.