Mechanical properties of the two-filament insulin amyloid fibril: a theoretical study

Abstract

We study the two-filament insulin fibril's structure by incorporating recent simulation results and mechanical measurements. Our investigation suggests that the persistence length measurement correlates well with the previously proposed structural model, while the elasticity measurement suggests that stretching the fibril may involve hydrogen bond breakage. Our work illustrates an attempt to correlate nanoscale measurements with microscopic information on the quaternary protein structure.