Molecular Interactions of Dendrimers with Amyloid Peptides: pH Dependence

Dendrimer effects on peptide and protein fibrillation

Dendrimers are synthetic, symmetrically branched polymers that can be manufactured to a high degree of definition and therefore present themselves as monodisperse entities. Flexible and globular in shape and compartementalized into a partly inaccessible interior and a highly exposed surface, they offer numerous possibilities for interactions with and responses to biological macromolecules and biostructures including cell membranes and proteins. By way of their multiple functional surface groups, they allow the design of surfaces carrying a multitude of biological motifs and/or charges giving rise to quite significant biological and physico-chemical effects. Here we describe the surprising ability of dendrimers to interact with and perturb polypeptide conformations, particularly efficiently towards amyloid structures; that is, the structures of highly insoluble polypeptide aggregates involved in a range of serious and irreversibly progressive pathological conditions (protein-misfolding diseases). Interesting as this may be, the interaction of dendrimers with such generic peptidic aggregates also offers a new perspective on the molecular mechanisms governing assembly and disassembly of amyloid structures and thereby on determinants of protein and peptide folding. Despite the potent disaggregative nature of various dendrimers, they have variable effects on the stability of different proteins, suggesting that they do not act as generic denaturants, but rather exert their effects via specific interactions with individual parts of each protein.

EPR Study of the Interactions between Dendrimers and Peptides Involved in Alzheimer's and Prion Diseases

Spin-probe and spin-label techniques were used to study the interactions of the Abeta 1-28 peptide involved in Alzheimer disease and the PrP 106-126 peptide suspected to be preferentially involved in spongiform encephalopathies with three different types of dendrimers. A computer-aided EPR analysis of a positively charged and a neutral spin probe was performed by comparing the pure dendrimer and peptide systems with the dendrimer-peptide ones. Also spin-labeled PAMAM dendrimers were used to test the interactions. The results show the interactions between dendrimer and peptide monomer to be stronger for Abeta 1-28 than for PrP 106-126. PAMAM dendrimers perturb the aggregation of the peptides more than PPI dendrimers do.