From Disordered to Ordered: Nanoscale Spectroscopy Reveals Structural Evolution of Amyloid Beta 40 Fibrils

Amyloid beta-40 (Aβ40) aggregation constitutes a central pathological mechanism in Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy, yet the structural evolution from early-stage assemblies to mature fibrils remains incompletely characterized. Here, we employ atomic force microscopy coupled with infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) to resolve morphological and structural heterogeneity of Aβ40 at the single-fibril level across aggregation stages. Early-stage fibrils exhibit two distinct morphological polymorphs characterized by predominantly disordered structures with coexisting antiparallel β-sheet motifs. Upon maturation, fibrils converge toward a single dominant polymorph and transition to parallel β-sheet conformations, yielding morphologically homogeneous yet structurally heterogeneous populations. Critically, seeding experiments with isotopically labeled Aβ40 demonstrate that the disordered polymorphs do not propagate efficiently, explaining their longstanding absence in structural studies of both in vitro and brain-derived aggregates. These findings establish the transient nature of early-stage antiparallel intermediates and provide mechanistic insights into fibril maturation pathways with implications for understanding amyloid polymorphism and therapeutic targeting strategies.