Oligomers of disease-causing amyloid proteins (such as Alzheimer’s Amyloid beta or ’Aβ’) are generally amphiphilic and their interactions with lipid membranes are possibly the origin of their toxicity. However, how oligomers of different stoichiometries or different mutants differ in their interaction with the membrane, and how these differences correlate with their toxicity, has largely remained beyond the reach of existing experimental techniques. Here we use Q-SLIP, a single-molecule tool that can resolve the surface exposure of different parts of individual oligomers, and different radical-labeled lipids that act as quenchers, to address these questions.
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