Figure 3.

The 4‐mer peptide Ac‐TTAI‐NH₂ effectively blocked the polymerization of Z‐AT. Z‐AT was incubated with the previous identified peptide Ac‐FLEAIG (lane 3; 100‐fold molar excess) and the combinatorially selected peptide Ac‐TTAI‐NH₂ (lane 4; 20‐fold molar excess) at 37°C for 4 hrs, and then heated to 62°C for 30 min. to intentionally accelerate the polymerization process before assay. Lane 2 showed the effect of heat pulse on Z‐AT without peptide. While Ac‐FLEAIG was able to inhibit polymerization under physiological conditions [25], it was unable to prevent polymerization under such harsh conditions. In contrast, polymerization of Z‐AT was completely inhibited by the peptide Ac‐TTAI‐NH₂ at a low molar ratio. Each lane contained 2.5 μg of protein.