Amyloid fibrils are proteins that have aggregated with specific cross-beta-sheet structures (Fowler et al., 2012). Amyloid fibrils typically are associated with the neurodegenerative diseases specifically Alzheimer’s. In recent years a handful of papers have been published that have located amyloid fibrils in the epididymal fluid and seminal plasma of mice (Whelly et al., 2012) and humans (Usmani et al., 2014), and their relation to the transmission of diseases like HIV. The results from these studies and others (Guyonnet et al., 2014; Sylva et al., 2015; Whelly et al., 2015; Whelly et al., 2016) have led to the notion that amyloid fibrils are linked to not just the diseases, but also in normal physiological processes such as fertilization and development. The goal of this study was to locate and identify amyloid fibrils in bovine seminal plasma (SP). Characterization of these fibrillar structures may eventually lead to development of new strategies to treat HIV or similarly diseases by stopping the formation of amyloid fiber aggregates.
