Study of Protein Amyloid-Like Aggregates by Solid-State Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy

Protein aggregation and amyloidogenesis are closely associated with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Elucidating the morphology and structure of the amyloid aggregates or fibrils is important for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these proteinopathies. This review article describes the general principle and establishment of solid-state circular dichroism (ssCD) spectroscopy, and discusses its application for the analysis of secondary structures of proteins or peptides in amyloids and structural transformation of these proteins or peptides during their amyloidogenic aggregation.