Fig. 1. Detection of amyloid species by NMR.

Solution NMR spectroscopy is well suited for high-resolution structural and dynamical studies of fast tumbling monomers and small molecular weight amyloid species like oligomers formed in the early lag phase (blue). On the other hand, magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR techniques can be used to investigate the high-resolution structures of anisotropic, larger aggregates such as large oligomers, protofibers and fibers (purple). In addition, as discussed in the main text, semi-solids that are not isotropic such as small to large size oligomers can also be investigated using high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) experiments. Use of a combination of solution and solid-state NMR experiments and peptides judiciously labelled with isotopes (¹³C, ¹⁵N, ²H, ¹⁹F or a combination of them) can provide piercing atomic-resolution insights into the self-assembly process of amyloid aggregation, the formation of toxic oligomers, polymorphism of fibers and the dynamic exchange among the different species.