Electrostatic and hydrophobic patches on Amyloid-\b{eta} oligomers govern their fractal self-assembly: Implication to proteins

Abstract

We present a generic model to describe the fractal self-assembly of proteins in terms of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. The predictions of the model were correlated with the simulated fractals obtained using patchy diffusion-limited aggregation, and the experimentally observed Amyloid-\b{eta} (A\b{eta}) fractal self-assembly using confocal microscopy. The molecular docking was used to determine the properties of the patches on A\b{eta} oligomers. Similar patch properties were used to design the particles for simulation. In agreement with the model predictions, the free energy of formation for the simulated fractal self-assembly was proportional to its fractal dimension; moreover, their morphologies were similar to the fractal morphologies of A\b{eta} observed experimentally at different pH.