Nanomechanical Properties of Amyloid Fibrils Formed in a Water Nanofilm on Mica SurfaceSupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 11474173, the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant Nos LY14A040006 and LQ14F040002, the Ningbo Natural Science Foundation under Grant Nos 2014A610202 and 2014A610149, and the K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University

• Published in: Chinese physics letters Vol. 33; no. 1
• Main Authors: Wang, Lan-Jie, Kong, Li-Xia, Su, Lan-Lan, Zhao, Zi-Qi, Zhang, Gong-Jun, Zhou, Xing-Fei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing 01.01.2016
• ISSN: 0256-307X; 1741-3540
• DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/33/1/018702

The assessment of nanomechanical properties of a single amyloid fibril in a confined space provides important information for understanding the role of fibrils in a cell microenvironment. In this study, the structure and nanomechanical properties of different fibrils formed in water nanofilms on mica surface are carefully investigated by using the new atomic force microscopy imaging mode-peak force quantitative nanomechanics (PF-QNM). We find that two types of fibrils with different morphologies are formed in water nanofilm on mica. The compression elasticities of these two types of fibrils are 3.9±0.9 and 2.5±0.6GPa, respectively. The remarkable difference is possibly due to the structural discrepancy in two types of fibrils.