Peptide-based inhibitors and nanoparticles: Emerging therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss, cognitive decline, and behavioral changes, impacting millions of individuals worldwide. Despite significant research into its cellular and molecular mechanisms, no cure has been found to treat AD to date. For over two decades, research aimed at treating AD has focused on targeting amyloid-β (Aβ); however, these strategies have not demonstrated substantial effectiveness. Consequently, research is now expanding towards targeting other hallmarks of the disease, such as tau protein and brain metal ions. Among potential therapeutics against these pathophysiological targets, peptide-based inhibitors are notable for their high selectivity and low toxicity. Despite these advantages, they face obstacles such as a short half-life in vivo and low efficiencies in crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The use of nanoparticles (NPs) to deliver peptide-based inhibitors to the brain offers unique advantages, such as enhanced stability against degradation, improvement in targeted delivery, and reduced potential for immunogenic responses. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of emerging peptides tested as treatments for AD against Aβ, tau protein, and brain metal ions and to evaluate NPs as a means to overcome the limitations. These peptide-based inhibitors are promising, as they not only alleviate symptoms but also aim to prevent progressive neuronal loss, and NPs can be highly effective in delivering these inhibitors.

Peptide-based amyloid-beta aggregation inhibitors

Aberrant protein misfolding and accumulation is considered to be a major pathological pillar of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide leads to the formation of toxic amyloid fibrils and is associated with cognitive dysfunction and memory loss in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Designing molecules that inhibit amyloid aggregation seems to be a rational approach to AD drug development. Over the years, researchers have utilized a variety of therapeutic strategies targeting different pathways, extensively studying peptide-based approaches to understand AD pathology and demonstrate their efficacy against Aβ aggregation. This review highlights rationally designed peptide/mimetics, including structure-based peptides, metal-peptide chelators, stapled peptides, and peptide-based nanomaterials as potential amyloid inhibitors.

Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential of Peptides for Synergistic Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease by Targeting Aβ Aggregation, Metal-Mediated Aβ Aggregation, Cholinesterase, Tau Degradation, and Oxidative Stress

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive multifaceted neurodegenerative disease and remains a formidable global health challenge. The current medication for AD gives symptomatic relief and, thus, urges us to look for alternative disease-modifying therapies based on a multitarget directed approach. Looking at the remarkable progress made in peptide drug development in the last decade and the benefits associated with peptides, they offer valuable chemotypes [multitarget directed ligands (MTDLs)] as AD therapeutics. This review recapitulates the current developments made in harnessing peptides as MTDLs in combating AD by targeting multiple key pathways involved in the disease's progression. The peptides hold immense potential and represent a convincing avenue in the pursuit of novel AD therapeutics. While hurdles remain, ongoing research offers hope that peptides may eventually provide a multifaceted approach to combat AD.

Targeting Protein-Protein Interfaces with Peptides: The Contribution of Chemical Combinatorial Peptide Library Approaches

Protein-protein interfaces play fundamental roles in the molecular mechanisms underlying pathophysiological pathways and are important targets for the design of compounds of therapeutic interest. However, the identification of binding sites on protein surfaces and the development of modulators of protein-protein interactions still represent a major challenge due to their highly dynamic and extensive interfacial areas. Over the years, multiple strategies including structural, computational, and combinatorial approaches have been developed to characterize PPI and to date, several successful examples of small molecules, antibodies, peptides, and aptamers able to modulate these interfaces have been determined. Notably, peptides are a particularly useful tool for inhibiting PPIs due to their exquisite potency, specificity, and selectivity. Here, after an overview of PPIs and of the commonly used approaches to identify and characterize them, we describe and evaluate the impact of chemical peptide libraries in medicinal chemistry with a special focus on the results achieved through recent applications of this methodology. Finally, we also discuss the role that this methodology can have in the framework of the opportunities, and challenges that the application of new predictive approaches based on artificial intelligence is generating in structural biology.

Peptide-Based Materials That Exploit Metal Coordination

Metal-ion coordination has been widely exploited to control the supramolecular behavior of a variety of building blocks into functional materials. In particular, peptides offer great chemical diversity for metal-binding modes, combined with inherent biocompatibility and biodegradability that make them attractive especially for medicine, sensing, and environmental remediation. The focus of this review is the last 5 years' progress in this exciting field to conclude with an overview of the future directions that this research area is currently undertaking.

Breaker peptides against amyloid-β aggregation: a potential therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, for which blocking the early steps of extracellular misfolded amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation is a promising therapeutic approach. However, the pathological features of AD progression include the accumulation of intracellular tau protein, membrane-catalyzed cell death and the abnormal deposition of Aβ. Here, we focus on anti-amyloid breaker peptides derived from the Aβ sequence and non-Aβ-based peptides containing both natural and modified amino acids. Critical aspects of the breaker peptides include N-methylation, conformational restriction through cyclization, incorporation of unnatural amino acid, fluorinated molecules, polymeric nanoparticles and PEGylation. This review confers a general idea of such breaker peptides with in vitro and in vivo studies, which may advance our understanding of AD pathology and develop an effective treatment strategy against AD.

Peptides for disrupting and degrading amyloids

Amyloid proteins can aggregate into insoluble fibrils and form amyloid deposits in the human brain, which is the hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases. Promising strategies toward pathological amyloid proteins and deposition include investigating inhibitors that can disrupt amyloid aggregation or induce misfolding protein degradation. In this review, recent progress of peptide-based inhibitors, including amyloid sequence-derived inhibitors, designed peptides, and peptide mimics, is highlighted. Based on the increased understanding of peptide design and precise amyloid structures, these peptides exhibit advanced inhibitory activities against fibrous aggregation as well as enhanced druggability.

Evaluating the Multifunctionality of a New Modulator of Zinc-Induced Aβ Aggregation Using a Novel Computational Approach

The high concentration of zinc metal ions in Aβ aggregations is one of the most cited hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and several substantial pieces of evidence emphasize the key role of zinc metal ions in the pathogenesis of AD. In this study, while designing a multifunctional peptide for simultaneous targeting Aβ aggregation and chelating the zinc metal ion, a novel and comprehensive approach is introduced for evaluating the multifunctionality of a multifunctional drugs based on computational methods. The multifunctional peptide consists of inhibitor and chelator domains, which are included in the C-terminal hydrophobic region of Aβ, and the first four amino acids of human albumin. The ability of the multifunctional peptide in zinc ion chelation has been investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the peptide-zinc interaction for 300 ns, and Bennett's acceptance ratio (BAR) method has been used to accurately calculate the chelation free energy. Data analysis demonstrates that the peptide chelating domain can be stably linked to the zinc ion. Besides, the introduced method used for evaluating chelation and calculating the free energy of peptide binding to zinc ions was successfully validated by comparison with previous experimental and theoretical published data. The results indicate that the multifunctional peptide, coordinating with the zinc metal ion, can be effective in Aβ inhibition by preserving the native helical structure of the Aβ₄₂ monomer as well as disrupting the β-sheet structure of Aβ₄₂ aggregates. Detailed assessments of the Aβ₄₂-peptide interactions elucidate that the inhibition of Aβ is achieved by considerable hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding between the multifunctional peptide and the hydrophobic Aβ regions, along with interfering in stable bridges formed inside the Aβ aggregate.

Interactions between Curcumin Derivatives and Amyloid-β Fibrils: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides into senile plaques is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is hypothesized to be the primary cause of AD related neurodegeneration. Previous studies have shown the ability of curcumin to both inhibit the aggregation of Aβ peptides into oligomers or fibrils and reduce amyloids in vivo. Despite the promise of curcumin and its derivatives to serve as diagnostic, preventative, and potentially therapeutic AD molecules, the mechanism by which curcumin and its derivatives bind to and inhibit Aβ fibrils' formation remains elusive. Here, we investigated curcumin and a set of curcumin derivatives in complex with a hexamer peptide model of the Aβ1-42 fibril using nearly exhaustive docking, followed by multi-ns molecular dynamics simulations, to provide atomistic-detail insights into the molecules' binding and inhibitory properties. In the vast majority of the simulations, curcumin and its derivatives remain firmly bound in complex with the fibril through primarily three different principle binding modes, in which the molecules interact with residue domain 17LVFFA21, in line with previous experiments. In a small subset of these simulations, the molecules partly dissociate the outermost peptide of the Aβ1-42 fibril by disrupting β-sheets within the residue domain 12VHHQKLVFF20. A comparison between binding modes leading or not leading to partial dissociation of the outermost peptide suggests that the latter is attributed to a few subtle key structural and energetic interaction-based differences. Interestingly, partial dissociation appears to be either an outcome of high affinity interactions or a cause leading to high affinity interactions between the molecules and the fibril, which could partly serve as a compensation for the energy loss in the fibril due to partial dissociation. In conjunction with this, we suggest a potential inhibition mechanism of Αβ1-42 aggregation by the molecules, where the partially dissociated 16KLVFF20 domain of the outermost peptide could either remain unstructured or wrap around to form intramolecular interactions with the same peptide's 29GAIIG33 domain, while the molecules could additionally act as a patch against the external edge of the second outermost peptide's 16KLVFF20 domain. Thereby, individually or concurrently, these could prohibit fibril elongation.

Conjugation of RTHLVFFARK to human lysozyme creates a potent multifunctional modulator for Cu2+-mediated amyloid β-protein aggregation and cytotoxicity

Conjugation of alkaline decapeptide (RTHLVFFARK) to lysozyme creates a potent multifunctional modulator (R-hLys) for Cu²⁺-mediated amyloid β-protein aggregation and cytotoxicity.

Self-triggered click reaction in an Alzheimer's disease model: in situ bifunctional drug synthesis catalyzed by neurotoxic copper accumulated in amyloid-β plaques

Cu is one of the essential elements for life. Its dyshomeostasis has been demonstrated to be closely related to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and Cu accumulation. It is a great challenge as to how to take advantage of neurotoxic Cu to fight disease and make it helpful. Herein, we report that the accumulated Cu in Aβ plaques can effectively catalyze an azide-alkyne bioorthogonal cycloaddition reaction for fluorophore activation and drug synthesis in living cells, a transgenic AD model of Caenorhabditis elegans CL2006, and brain slices of triple transgenic AD mice. More importantly, the in situ synthesized bifunctional drug 6 can disassemble Aβ-Cu aggregates by extracting Cu and photo-oxygenating Aβ synergistically, suppressing Aβ-mediated paralysis and diminishing the locomotion defects of the AD model CL2006 strain. Our results demonstrate that taking the accumulated Cu ions in the Aβ plaque for an in situ click reaction can achieve both a self-triggered and self-regulated drug synthesis for AD therapy. To the best of our knowledge, a click reaction catalyzed by local Cu in a physiological environment has not been reported. This work may open up a new avenue for in situ multifunctional drug synthesis by using endogenous neurotoxic metal ions for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Identification of a Novel Multifunctional Ligand for Simultaneous Inhibition of Amyloid-Beta (Aβ42) and Chelation of Zinc Metal Ion

Zinc binding to β-amyloid structure could promote amyloid-β aggregation, as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, as suggested in many experimental and theoretical studies. Therefore, the introduction of multifunctional drugs capable of chelating zinc metal ion and inhibiting Aβ aggregation is a promising strategy in the development of AD treatment. The present study has evaluated the efficacy of a new bifunctional peptide drug using molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This drug comprises two different domains, an inhibitor domain, obtained from the C-terminal hydrophobic region of Aβ, and a Zn²⁺ chelating domain, derived from rapeseed meal, merge with a linker. The multifunctionality of the ligand was evaluated using a comprehensive set of MD simulations spanning up to 3.2 μs including Aβ relaxation, ligand-Zn²⁺ bilateral interaction, and, more importantly, ligand-Zn²⁺-Aβ₄₂ trilateral interactions. Analysis of the results strongly indicated that the bifunctional ligand can chelate zinc metal ion and avoid Aβ aggregation simultaneously. The present study illustrated that the proposed ligand has considerable hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding with monomeric Aβ in the presence of zinc metal ion. Therefore, in light of these considerable interactions and contacts, the α-helical structure of Aβ has been enhanced, while the β-sheet formation is prevented and the α-helix native structure is protected. Furthermore, the analysis of interactions between Aβ and ligand-zinc complex revealed that the zinc metal ion is coordinated to Met13, the ending residue of the ligand and merely one residue in Aβ. The results have proven the previous experimental and theoretical findings in the literature about Aβ interactions with zinc metal ion and also Aβ interactions with the first domain of the proposed ligand. Moreover, the current research has evaluated the chelation using MD simulation and linear interaction energy (LIE) methods, and the result has been satisfactorily verified with previous experimental and theoretical (DFT) studies.

Recent advances in the design and applications of amyloid-β peptide aggregation inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease therapy

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible neurological disorder that progresses gradually and can cause severe cognitive and behavioral impairments. This disease is currently considered a social and economic incurable issue due to its complicated and multifactorial characteristics. Despite decades of extensive research, we still lack definitive AD diagnostic and effective therapeutic tools. Consequently, one of the most challenging subjects in modern medicine is the need for the development of new strategies for the treatment of AD. A large body of evidence indicates that amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide fibrillation plays a key role in the onset and progression of AD. Recent studies have reported that amyloid hypothesis-based treatments can be developed as a new approach to overcome the limitations and challenges associated with conventional AD therapeutics. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive view of the challenges in AD therapy and pathophysiology. We also discuss currently known compounds that can inhibit amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and their potential role in advancing current AD treatments. We have specifically focused on Aβ aggregation inhibitors including metal chelators, nanostructures, organic molecules, peptides (or peptide mimics), and antibodies. To date, these molecules have been the subject of numerous in vitro and in vivo assays as well as molecular dynamics simulations to explore their mechanism of action and the fundamental structural groups involved in Aβ aggregation. Ultimately, the aim of these studies (and current review) is to achieve a rational design for effective therapeutic agents for AD treatment and diagnostics.

Fundamentals of cross-seeding of amyloid proteins: an introduction

Misfolded protein aggregates formed by the same (homologous) or different (heterologous/cross) sequences are the pathological hallmarks of many protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Different from homologous-amyloid aggregation that is solely associated with a specific PMD, cross-amyloid aggregation (i.e. cross-seeding) of different amyloid proteins is more fundamentally and biologically important for understanding and untangling not only the pathological process of each PMD, but also a potential molecular cross-talk between different PMDs. However, the cross-amyloid aggregation is still a subject poorly explored and little is known about its sequence/structure-dependent aggregation mechanisms, as compared to the widely studied homo-amyloid aggregation. Here, we review the most recent and important findings of amyloid cross-seeding behaviors from in vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies. Some typical cross-seeding phenomena between Aβ/hIAPP, Aβ/tau, Aβ/α-synuclein, and tau/α-synuclein are selected and presented, and the underlying specific or general cross-seeding mechanisms are also discussed to better reveal their sequence-structure-property relationships. The potential use of the cross-seeding concept to design amyloid inhibitors is also proposed. Finally, we offer some personal perspectives on current major challenges and future research directions in this less-studied yet important field, and hopefully this work will stimulate more research to explore all possible fundamental and practical aspects of amyloid cross-seeding.

Blood-brain barrier and innate immunity in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease

The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is only partly understood. This is the probable reason why significant efforts to treat or prevent AD have been unsuccessful. In fact, as of April 2019, there have been 2094 studies registered for AD on the clinicaltrials.gov U.S. National Library of Science web page, of which only a few are still ongoing. In AD, abnormal accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain are thought to begin 10-20 years before the onset of overt symptoms, suggesting that interventions designed to prevent pathological amyloid and tau accumulation may be more effective than attempting to reverse a pathology once it is established. However, to be successful, such early interventions need to be selectively administered to individuals who will likely develop the disease long before the symptoms occur. Therefore, it is critical to identify early biomarkers that are strongly predictive of AD. Currently, patients are diagnosed on the basis of a variety of clinical scales, neuropsychological tests, imaging and laboratory modalities, but definitive diagnosis can be made only by postmortem assessment of underlying neuropathology. People suffering from AD thus may be misdiagnosed clinically with other primary causes of dementia, and vice versa, thereby also reducing the power of clinical trials. The amyloid cascade hypothesis fits well for the familial cases of AD with known mutations, but is not sufficient to explain sporadic, late-onset AD (LOAD) that accounts for over 95% of all cases. Since the earliest descriptions of AD there have been neuropathological features described other than amyloid plaques (AP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), most notably gliosis and neuroinflammation. However, it is only recently that genetic and experimental studies have implicated microglial dysfunction as a causal factor for AD, as opposed to a merely biological response of its accumulation around AP. Additionally, many studies have suggested the importance of changes in blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability in the pathogenesis of AD. Here we suggest how these less investigated aspects of the disease that have gained increased attention in recent years may contribute mechanistically to the development of lesions and symptoms of AD.

Multifunctional carbon dots as a therapeutic nanoagent for modulating Cu(ii)-mediated β-amyloid aggregation

The abnormal self-assembly of cerebral β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides into toxic aggregates is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we report on multifunctional carbon dots that can chelate Cu(ii) ions, suppress Aβ aggregation, and photooxygenate Aβ peptides. Copper ions have high relevance to AD pathogenesis, causing Cu(ii)-mediated Aβ aggregation and oxidative damage to neuronal cells. For effective conjugation with Cu(ii)-bound Aβ complexes, we have designed carbon dots that possess nitrogen (N)-containing polyaromatic functionalities on their surface by employing o-phenylenediamine (OPD) as a polymerization precursor. We demonstrate that the polymerized OPD (pOPD)-derived carbon dots exhibit multiple capabilities against Cu(ii)-mediated Aβ aggregation. Furthermore, the pOPD-derived carbon dots exhibited dramatically enhanced absorption and fluorescence upon coordination with Cu(ii) ions and effectively photooxygenated Aβ peptides. The photodynamically modulated Aβ residues lost the propensity to coordinate with Cu(ii) and to assemble into toxic aggregates. This work demonstrates the potential of carbon dots as a multifunctional β-sheet breaker and provides a promising anti-amyloidogenic strategy for future Aβ-targeted AD treatments.

Carnosine-LVFFARK-NH2 Conjugate: A Moderate Chelator but Potent Inhibitor of Cu2+-Mediated Amyloid β-Protein Aggregation

Aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) protein stimulated by Cu²⁺ has been recognized as a crucial step in the neurodegenerative process of Alzheimer's disease. Hence, it is of significance to develop bifunctional agents capable of inhibiting Aβ aggregation as well as Cu²⁺-mediated Aβ toxicity. Herein, a novel bifunctional nonapeptide, carnosine-LVFFARK-NH₂ ( Car-LK7), was proposed by integrating native chelator carnosine ( Car) and an Aβ aggregation inhibitor, Ac-LVFFARK-NH₂ (LK7). Results revealed the bifunctionality of Car-LK7, including remarkably enhanced inhibition capability on Aβ aggregation as compared to LK7 and a moderate Cu²⁺ chelating affinity ( K_D = 28.2 ± 2.1 μM) in comparison to the binding affinity for Aβ₄₀ ( K_D = 1.02 ± 0.13 μM). The moderate Cu²⁺ affinity was insufficient for Car-LK7 to sequester Cu²⁺ from Aβ₄₀-Cu²⁺ species, but it was sufficient to form ternary Aβ₄₀-Cu²⁺- Car-LK7 complexes. Formation of the ternary complexes directed the aggregation into small, unstructured aggregates with little β-sheet structure. Car-LK7 also showed higher activity on arresting Aβ₄₀-Cu²⁺-catalyzed reactive oxygen species production than Car. Cell viability assays confirmed the prominent protection activity of Car-LK7 against Cu²⁺-mediated Aβ₄₀ cytotoxicity; Car-LK7 could almost eliminate Aβ₄₀ cytotoxicity at an equimolar dose (cell viability increased from 59% to 99%). The research has thus provided new insight into the design of potent bifunctional agents against metal-mediated amyloid toxicity by conjugating moderate metal chelators and existing inhibitors.

Peptides, Peptidomimetics, and Carbohydrate-Peptide Conjugates as Amyloidogenic Aggregation Inhibitors for Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder accounting for 60-80% of dementia cases. For many years, AD causality was attributed to amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregated species. Recently, multiple therapies that target Aβ aggregation have failed in clinical trials, since Aβ aggregation is found in AD and healthy patients. Attention has therefore shifted toward the aggregation of the tau protein as a major driver of AD. Numerous inhibitors of tau-based pathology have recently been developed. Diagnosis of AD has shifted from measuring late stage senile plaques to early stage biomarkers, amyloid-β and tau monomers and oligomeric assemblies. Synthetic peptides and some derivative structures are being explored for use as theranostic tools as they possess the capacity both to bind the biomarkers and to inhibit their pathological self-assembly. Several studies have demonstrated that O-linked glycoside addition can significantly alter amyloid aggregation kinetics. Furthermore, natural O-glycosylation of amyloid-forming proteins, including amyloid precursor protein (APP), tau, and α-synuclein, promotes alternative nonamyloidogenic processing pathways. As such, glycopeptides and related peptidomimetics are being investigated within the AD field. Here we review advancements made in the last 5 years, as well as the arrival of sugar-based derivatives.