Amyloid peptides incorporating a core sequence from the amyloid beta peptide and gamma amino acids: relating bioactivity to self-assembly

A series of heptapeptides comprising the core sequence A beta(16-20), KLVFF, of the amyloid beta peptide coupled with paired N-terminal gamma-amino acids are investigated in terms of cytotoxicity reduction and binding to the full A beta peptide, both pointing to inhibition of fibrillisation for selected compounds. This is related to the self-assembly capacity of the heptapeptides.