Cell interaction study of amyloid by using luminescent conjugated polythiophene: implication that amyloid cytotoxicity is correlated with prolonged cellular binding.

Needles and noodles: Studying amyloid toxicity is important for understanding protein misfolding diseases. Using a luminescent conjugated polythiophene, we found that cell binding of nontoxic filamentous amyloids of insulin and β2-microglobulin was less efficient than that of toxic fibrillar amyloids; this suggests a correlation between amyloid toxicity and cell binding.