Purification and Fibrillation of Full-Length Recombinant PrP

Role of different recombinant PrP substrates in the diagnostic accuracy of the CSF RT-QuIC assay in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

The development of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), an in vitro protein misfolding amplification assay, was an innovation in the scientific field of protein misfolding diseases. In prion diseases, these types of assays imitate the pathological conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a protease-resistant and/or amyloid form of PrP, called PrP resistant (PrPRes). The RT-QuIC is an automatic assay system based on real-time measuring of thioflavin-T (Th-T) incorporation into amyloid fibrils using shaking for disaggregation. It has already been applied in diagnostics, drug pre-screening, and to distinguish between different prion strains. The seeded conversion efficiency and the diagnostic accuracy of the RT-QuIC assay strongly depend on the kind of recombinant PrP (rec PrP) substrate. The DNA sequences of different substrates may originate from different species, such as human, bank vole, and hamster, or from a combination of two species, e.g., hamster-sheep chimera. In routine use, either full-length (FL) or truncated substrates are applied which can accelerate the conversion reaction, e.g., to a more sensitive version of RT-QuIC assay. In the present review, we provide an overview on the different types of PrP substrates (FL and truncated forms), recapitulate the production and purification process of different rec PrP substrates, and discuss the diagnostic value of CSF RT-QuIC in human prion disease diagnostics.

Stilbene Compounds Inhibit the Replications of Various Strains of Prions in the Levels of Cell Culture, PMCA, and RT-QuIC Possibly via Molecular Binding

Resveratrol shows the ability to block prion replication in a scrapie-infected cell line, SMB-S15, and remove the infectivity of the treated cell lysates in an experimental bioassay. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of three stilbene compounds, resveratrol (Res), pterostilbene (Pte), and piceatannol (Pic), on inhibiting prion propagations in the levels of cell culture, PMCA, and RT-QuIC. All three chemicals showed active suppressions on PrP^Sc replication in SMB-S15 cells, in which Res seemed to be the most active one, followed by Pic and Pte. Mouse PrP-based PMCA tests using the lysates of SMB-S15 cells and brain homogenates of scrapie agents S15-, 139A-, or ME7-infected mice verified that Res, Pte, and Pic inhibited the amplifications of PK-resistant signals. Res was also the most effective one. Mouse PrP-based RT-QuIC using the above seeds demonstrated that three stilbenes efficiently inhibited the fibril formation. However, Pic was the most effective one, followed by Res and Pte. Furthermore, the inhibition activities of the three stilbenes on the brain-derived prion from a 263K-infected hamster were tested with hamster PrP-based PMCA and RT-QuIC. The results indicated that Pic was the most effective one apparently, followed by Res and Pte. According to the results of Biacore, Res showed binding affinities much stronger than those of Pte, whereas both revealed markedly stronger binding affinities with mouse PrP. Our data here indicate that different stilbenes have the ability to block PrP^Sc replication in vitro with different prion species. The suppressive effects of stilbene compounds are likely associated with their molecular binding activities with PrPs.

High-Pressure Response of Amyloid Folds

The abnormal protein aggregates in progressive neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and prion diseases, adopt a generic structural form called amyloid fibrils. The precise amyloid fold can differ between patients and these differences are related to distinct neuropathological phenotypes of the diseases. A key focus in current research is the molecular mechanism governing such structural diversity, known as amyloid polymorphism. In this review, we focus on our recent work on recombinant prion protein (recPrP) and the use of pressure as a variable for perturbing protein structure. We suggest that the amyloid polymorphism is based on volumetric features. Accordingly, pressure is the thermodynamic parameter that fits best to exploit volume differences within the states of a chemical reaction, since it shifts the equilibrium constant to the state that has the smaller volume. In this context, there are analogies with the process of correct protein folding, the high pressure-induced effects of which have been studied for more than a century and which provides a valuable source of inspiration. We present a short overview of this background and review our recent results regarding the folding, misfolding, and aggregation-disaggregation of recPrP under pressure. We present preliminary experiments aimed at identifying how prion protein fibril diversity is related to the quaternary structure by using pressure and varying protein sequences. Finally, we consider outstanding questions and testable mechanistic hypotheses regarding the multiplicity of states in the amyloid fold.