Spot the Difference: Function versus Toxicity in Amyloid Fibrils.

In a recent study, Hervas et al . extracted Orb2 fibrils, that are involved in long-term memory for-mation, from Drosophila brains, characterised their function, and determined their structure using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The fibrils show a remarkable re-semblance to amyloid beta (A beta) fibrils associated with Alzheimer's dis-ease, highlighting the subtle dif-ference between functional and dysfunctional amyloid.