The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been the focus of a lot of research these past two years. It’s what the virus uses to invade host cells and it has been the target of COVID vaccines. Researchers have also speculated that regions of the protein can clump up to form amyloid fibrils like those seen in diseases like Alzheimer’s. Some scientists have wondered if spike protein fibrils could contribute to the severity of COVID and long COVID. Sofie Nyström and Per Hammarström of Linköping University now show that peptides from the spike protein do indeed form these fibrils.

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