Novel aminobenzanthrone dyes for amyloid fibril detection

► Fluorescence spectroscopy is commonly used for amyloid characterization. ► Higher specificity of benzanthrone dyes for fibrillar lysozyme compared to ThT. ► High dyes' specificity for pre-fibrillar and low specificity for native lysozyme. ► Red edge effect of the bound dyes shows the polarity of fibril binding sites.