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Once they could catch a glimpse of the exterior of the protein aggregates, the researchers were in for a surprise. The interior of the aggregates is strictly organized. The proteins are neatly arranged in a so called beta sheet structure, which forms a twisted, pleated sheet. However, they found that the exterior of the aggregate has a much messier and chaotic structure. That is, the exterior proteins form a disorganized, irregular pattern. Here and there, there are patches that form a beta sheet structure, but in other places this regularity is nowhere to be found. The researchers even found structural differences from one nanometre to the next, on one and the same fibril.
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