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Juković M, Ratkaj I, Kalafatovic D, Bradshaw NJ. Amyloids, amorphous aggregates and assemblies of peptides - Assessing aggregation. Biophys Chem 2024; 308:107202. [PMID: 38382283 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpc.2024.107202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Amyloid and amorphous aggregates represent the two major categories of aggregates associated with diseases, and although exhibiting distinct features, researchers often treat them as equivalent, which demonstrates the need for more thorough characterization. Here, we compare amyloid and amorphous aggregates based on their biochemical properties, kinetics, and morphological features. To further decipher this issue, we propose the use of peptide self-assemblies as minimalistic models for understanding the aggregation process. Peptide building blocks are significantly smaller than proteins that participate in aggregation, however, they make a plausible means to bridge the gap in discerning the aggregation process at the more complex, protein level. Additionally, we explore the potential use of peptide-inspired models to research the liquid-liquid phase separation as a feasible mechanism preceding amyloid formation. Connecting these concepts can help clarify our understanding of aggregation-related disorders and potentially provide novel drug targets to impede and reverse these serious illnesses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maja Juković
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
| | - Ivana Ratkaj
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
| | - Daniela Kalafatovic
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
| | - Nicholas J Bradshaw
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
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2
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Chitty C, Kuliga K, Xue WF. Atomic force microscopy 3D structural reconstruction of individual particles in the study of amyloid protein assemblies. Biochem Soc Trans 2024; 52:761-771. [PMID: 38600027 DOI: 10.1042/bst20230857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Recent developments in atomic force microscopy (AFM) image analysis have made three-dimensional (3D) structural reconstruction of individual particles observed on 2D AFM height images a reality. Here, we review the emerging contact point reconstruction AFM (CPR-AFM) methodology and its application in 3D reconstruction of individual helical amyloid filaments in the context of the challenges presented by the structural analysis of highly polymorphous and heterogeneous amyloid protein structures. How individual particle-level structural analysis can contribute to resolving the amyloid polymorph structure-function relationships, the environmental triggers leading to protein misfolding and aggregation into amyloid species, the influences by the conditions or minor fluctuations in the initial monomeric protein structure on the speed of amyloid fibril formation, and the extent of the different types of amyloid species that can be formed, are discussed. Future perspectives in the capabilities of AFM-based 3D structural reconstruction methodology exploiting synergies with other recent AFM technology advances are also discussed to highlight the potential of AFM as an emergent general, accessible and multimodal structural biology tool for the analysis of individual biomolecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Chitty
- Division of Natural Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, U.K
| | - Kinga Kuliga
- Division of Natural Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, U.K
| | - Wei-Feng Xue
- Division of Natural Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, U.K
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3
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Andrikopoulos N, Tang H, Wang Y, Liang X, Li Y, Davis TP, Ke PC. Exploring Peptido-Nanocomposites in the Context of Amyloid Diseases. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2024; 63:e202309958. [PMID: 37943171 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202309958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023]
Abstract
Therapeutic peptides are a major class of pharmaceutical drugs owing to their target-binding specificity as well as their versatility in inhibiting aberrant protein-protein interactions associated with human pathologies. Within the realm of amyloid diseases, the use of peptides and peptidomimetics tailor-designed to overcome amyloidogenesis has been an active research endeavor since the late 90s. In more recent years, incorporating nanoparticles for enhancing the biocirculation and delivery of peptide drugs has emerged as a frontier in nanomedicine, and nanoparticles have further demonstrated a potency against amyloid aggregation and cellular inflammation to rival strategies employing small molecules, peptides, and antibodies. Despite these efforts, however, a fundamental understanding of the chemistry, characteristics and function of peptido-nanocomposites is lacking, and a systematic analysis of such strategy for combating a range of amyloid pathogeneses is missing. Here we review the history, principles and evolving chemistry of constructing peptido-nanocomposites from bottom up and discuss their future application against amyloid diseases that debilitate a significant portion of the global population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Andrikopoulos
- Nanomedicine Center, The Great Bay Area National Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, 136 Kaiyuan Avenue, Guangzhou, 510700, China
- Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Huayuan Tang
- College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
| | - Yue Wang
- Nanomedicine Center, The Great Bay Area National Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, 136 Kaiyuan Avenue, Guangzhou, 510700, China
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Guangzhou International Campus, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Xiufang Liang
- Nanomedicine Center, The Great Bay Area National Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, 136 Kaiyuan Avenue, Guangzhou, 510700, China
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Guangzhou International Campus, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Yuhuan Li
- Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Thomas P Davis
- Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
| | - Pu Chun Ke
- Nanomedicine Center, The Great Bay Area National Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, 136 Kaiyuan Avenue, Guangzhou, 510700, China
- Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
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4
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Byeon CH, Wang PC, Byeon IJL, Akbey Ü. Solution-state NMR assignment and secondary structure propensity of the full length and minimalistic-truncated prefibrillar monomeric form of biofilm forming functional amyloid FapC from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biomol NMR Assign 2023; 17:159-165. [PMID: 37162737 DOI: 10.1007/s12104-023-10135-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Functional bacterial amyloids provide structural scaffolding to bacterial biofilms. In contrast to the pathological amyloids, they have a role in vivo and are tightly regulated. Their presence is essential to the integrity of the bacterial communities surviving in biofilms and may cause serious health complications. Targeting amyloids in biofilms could be a novel approach to prevent chronic infections. However, structural information is very scarce on them in both soluble monomeric and insoluble fibrillar forms, hindering our molecular understanding and strategies to fight biofilm related diseases. Here, we present solution-state NMR assignment of 250 amino acid long biofilm-forming functional-amyloid FapC from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We studied full-length (FL) and shorter minimalistic-truncated (L2R3C) FapC constructs without the signal-sequence that is required for secretion. 91% and 100% backbone NH resonance assignments for FL and L2R3C constructs, respectively, indicate that soluble monomeric FapC is predominantly disordered, with sizeable secondary structural propensities mostly as PP2 helices, but also as α-helices and β-sheets highlighting hotspots for fibrillation initiation interface. A shorter construct showing almost identical NMR chemical shifts highlights the promise of utilizing it for more demanding solid-state NMR studies that require methods to alleviate signal redundancy due to almost identical repeat units. This study provides key NMR resonance assignments for future structural studies of soluble, pre-fibrillar and fibrillar forms of FapC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chang-Hyeock Byeon
- Department of Structural Biology, School of Medicine, Biomedical Science Tower 3, University of Pittsburgh, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15261, USA
| | - Pang C Wang
- Department of Structural Biology, School of Medicine, Biomedical Science Tower 3, University of Pittsburgh, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15261, USA
| | - In-Ja L Byeon
- Department of Structural Biology, School of Medicine, Biomedical Science Tower 3, University of Pittsburgh, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15261, USA
| | - Ümit Akbey
- Department of Structural Biology, School of Medicine, Biomedical Science Tower 3, University of Pittsburgh, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15261, USA.
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5
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Miura K, Iwashita T. Observations of amyloid breakdown by proteases over time using scanning acoustic microscopy. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20642. [PMID: 38001251 PMCID: PMC10673902 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48033-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Amyloid consists of insoluble beta-fibrillar proteins with stable structures. The Congo red staining method for histologically detecting amyloid is unsuitable for quantitatively assessing amyloid fibers. Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) detects the attenuation of sound (AOS) through sections. This study aimed to clarify whether AOS values reflected the amount of amyloid fibril degradation in tissues. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded unstained sections of various types of amyloidosis were digested with different endopeptidases. The AOS images after digestion were observed over time via SAM. The corresponding Congo red-stained images were followed to identify the amyloid. The amyloid and nonamyloid portions were statistically examined over time to determine the changes in the AOS values. Most of the amyloid areas showed significantly different AOS values from nonamyloid portions before digestion and significantly decreased after digestion; these findings corresponded with the disappearance and waning of the Congo red staining in the light microscopic images. Some nonamyloid areas with high AOS masked the reduction in AOS in the amyloid areas. The method used in this study may help detect the amyloid quantity and determine the appropriate treatment method for removing amyloid deposits from tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katsutoshi Miura
- Department of Regenerative and Infectious Pathology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handa-Yama, Higashiku, Hamamatsu, 431-3192, Japan.
| | - Toshihide Iwashita
- Department of Regenerative and Infectious Pathology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handa-Yama, Higashiku, Hamamatsu, 431-3192, Japan
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6
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Sønderby TV, Louros NN, Khodaparast L, Khodaparast L, Madsen DJ, Olsen WP, Moonen N, Nagaraj M, Sereikaite V, Strømgaard K, Rousseau F, Schymkowitz J, Otzen DE. Sequence-targeted Peptides Divert Functional Bacterial Amyloid Towards Destabilized Aggregates and Reduce Biofilm Formation. J Mol Biol 2023; 435:168039. [PMID: 37330291 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Functional bacterial amyloid provides structural stability in biofilm, making it a promising target for anti-biofilm therapeutics. Fibrils formed by CsgA, the major amyloid component in E. coli are extremely robust and can withstand very harsh conditions. Like other functional amyloids, CsgA contains relatively short aggregation-prone regions (APR) which drive amyloid formation. Here, we demonstrate the use of aggregation-modulating peptides to knock down CsgA protein into aggregates with low stability and altered morphology. Remarkably, these CsgA-peptides also modulate fibrillation of the unrelated functional amyloid protein FapC from Pseudomonas, possibly through recognition of FapC segments with structural and sequence similarity with CsgA. The peptides also reduce the level of biofilm formation in E. coli and P. aeruginosa, demonstrating the potential for selective amyloid targeting to combat bacterial biofilm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thorbjørn V Sønderby
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; Sino-Danish Center (SDC), Eastern Yanqihu Campus, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 380 Huaibeizhuang, Huairou District, Beijing, China. https://twitter.com/@tvs1212
| | - Nikolaos N Louros
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. https://twitter.com/LourosNikos
| | - Ladan Khodaparast
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. https://twitter.com/@LadanKhodapara1
| | - Laleh Khodaparast
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. https://twitter.com/@LalehKhodapara1
| | - Daniel J Madsen
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - William P Olsen
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; Sino-Danish Center (SDC), Eastern Yanqihu Campus, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 380 Huaibeizhuang, Huairou District, Beijing, China
| | - Nele Moonen
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Madhu Nagaraj
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Vita Sereikaite
- Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. https://twitter.com/@vitasereikaite
| | - Kristian Strømgaard
- Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. https://twitter.com/@stromgaardlab
| | - Frederic Rousseau
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. https://twitter.com/@stromgaardlab
| | - Joost Schymkowitz
- Switch Laboratory, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Switch Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. https://twitter.com/@stromgaardlab
| | - Daniel E Otzen
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
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7
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Kihal N, Côté-Cyr M, Nazemi A, Bourgault S. Semiconductive and Biocompatible Nanofibrils from the Self-Assembly of Amyloid π-Conjugated Peptides. Biomacromolecules 2023; 24:1417-1431. [PMID: 36847776 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.2c01438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
Owing to their capacity to self-assemble into organized nanostructures, amyloid polypeptides can serve as scaffolds for the design of biocompatible semiconductive materials. Herein, symmetric and asymmetric amyloid π-conjugated peptides were prepared through condensation of perylene diimide (PDI) with a natural amyloidogenic sequence derived from the islet amyloid polypeptide. These PDI-bioconjugates assembled into long and linear nanofilaments in aqueous solution, which were characterized by a cross-β-sheet quaternary organization. Current-voltage curves exhibited a clear signature of semiconductors, whereas the cellular assays revealed cytocompatibility and potential application in fluorescence microscopy. Although the incorporation of a single amyloid peptide appeared sufficient to drive the self-assembly into organized fibrils, the incorporation of two peptide sequences at the PDI's imide positions significantly enhanced the conductivity of nanofibril-based films. Overall, this study exposes a novel strategy based on amyloidogenic peptide to guide the self-assembly of π-conjugated systems into robust, biocompatible, and optoelectronic nanofilaments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadjib Kihal
- Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3P8, Canada
- Quebec Network for Research on Protein Function, Engineering and Applications (PROTEO), Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
- Quebec Centre for Advanced Materials, QCAM, Montreal H1A 0A1, Canada
| | - Mélanie Côté-Cyr
- Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3P8, Canada
- Quebec Network for Research on Protein Function, Engineering and Applications (PROTEO), Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
| | - Ali Nazemi
- Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3P8, Canada
- Quebec Centre for Advanced Materials, QCAM, Montreal H1A 0A1, Canada
| | - Steve Bourgault
- Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3P8, Canada
- Quebec Network for Research on Protein Function, Engineering and Applications (PROTEO), Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
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8
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Duan G, Li Y, Ye M, Liu H, Wang N, Luo S. The Regulatory Mechanism of Transthyretin Irreversible Aggregation through Liquid-to-Solid Phase Transition. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24043729. [PMID: 36835140 PMCID: PMC9960511 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24043729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2022] [Revised: 02/05/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Transthyretin (TTR) aggregation and amyloid formation are associated with several ATTR diseases, such as senile systemic amyloidosis (SSA) and familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). However, the mechanism that triggers the initial pathologic aggregation process of TTR remains largely elusive. Lately, increasing evidence has suggested that many proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases undergo liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and subsequent liquid-to-solid phase transition before the formation of amyloid fibrils. Here, we demonstrate that electrostatic interactions mediate LLPS of TTR, followed by a liquid-solid phase transition, and eventually the formation of amyloid fibrils under a mildly acidic pH in vitro. Furthermore, pathogenic mutations (V30M, R34T, and K35T) of TTR and heparin promote the process of phase transition and facilitate the formation of fibrillar aggregates. In addition, S-cysteinylation, which is a kind of post-translational modification of TTR, reduces the kinetic stability of TTR and increases the propensity for aggregation, while another modification, S-sulfonation, stabilizes the TTR tetramer and reduces the aggregation rate. Once TTR was S-cysteinylated or S-sulfonated, they dramatically underwent the process of phase transition, providing a foundation for post-translational modifications that could modulate TTR LLPS in the context of pathological interactions. These novel findings reveal molecular insights into the mechanism of TTR from initial LLPS and subsequent liquid-to-solid phase transition to amyloid fibrils, providing a new dimension for ATTR therapy.
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9
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Kachkin DV, Volkov KV, Sopova JV, Bobylev AG, Fedotov SA, Inge-Vechtomov SG, Galzitskaya OV, Chernoff YO, Rubel AA, Aksenova AY. Human RAD51 Protein Forms Amyloid-like Aggregates In Vitro. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms231911657. [PMID: 36232958 PMCID: PMC9570251 DOI: 10.3390/ijms231911657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2022] [Revised: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
RAD51 is a central protein of homologous recombination and DNA repair processes that maintains genome stability and ensures the accurate repair of double-stranded breaks (DSBs). In this work, we assessed amyloid properties of RAD51 in vitro and in the bacterial curli-dependent amyloid generator (C-DAG) system. Resistance to ionic detergents, staining with amyloid-specific dyes, polarized microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction and other methods were used to evaluate the properties and structure of RAD51 aggregates. The purified human RAD51 protein formed detergent-resistant aggregates in vitro that had an unbranched cross-β fibrillar structure, which is typical for amyloids, and were stained with amyloid-specific dyes. Congo-red-stained RAD51 aggregates demonstrated birefringence under polarized light. RAD51 fibrils produced sharp circular X-ray reflections at 4.7 Å and 10 Å, demonstrating that they had a cross-β structure. Cytoplasmic aggregates of RAD51 were observed in cell cultures overexpressing RAD51. We demonstrated that a key protein that maintains genome stability, RAD51, has amyloid properties in vitro and in the C-DAG system and discussed the possible biological relevance of this observation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel V. Kachkin
- Laboratory of Amyloid Biology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Kirill V. Volkov
- Research Resource Center “Molecular and Cell Technologies”, Research Park, St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU), 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Julia V. Sopova
- Laboratory of Amyloid Biology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
- Center of Transgenesis and Genome Editing, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Alexander G. Bobylev
- Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Institutskaya St., 142290 Moscow, Russia
| | - Sergei A. Fedotov
- Laboratory of Amyloid Biology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Sergei G. Inge-Vechtomov
- Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Oxana V. Galzitskaya
- Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Institutskaya St., 142290 Moscow, Russia
- Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290 Pushchino, Russia
| | - Yury O. Chernoff
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-2000, USA
| | - Aleksandr A. Rubel
- Laboratory of Amyloid Biology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
- Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
- Correspondence: (A.A.R.); (A.Y.A.)
| | - Anna Y. Aksenova
- Laboratory of Amyloid Biology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
- Correspondence: (A.A.R.); (A.Y.A.)
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10
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Zhaliazka K, Rizevsky S, Matveyenka M, Serada V, Kurouski D. Charge of Phospholipids Determines the Rate of Lysozyme Aggregation but Not the Structure and Toxicity of Amyloid Aggregates. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:8833-8839. [PMID: 36111888 PMCID: PMC10405293 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Biophysical properties of plasma membranes are determined by a chemical structure of phospholipids, including saturation of fatty acids and charge of polar heads of these molecules. Phospholipids not only determine fluidity and plasticity of membranes but also play an important role in abrupt aggregation of misfolded proteins. In this study, we investigate the role of the charge of the most abundant phospholipids in the plasma membrane on the aggregation properties of the lysozyme. We found that the charge of phospholipids determines the aggregation rate of lysozyme and the morphology of the protein aggregates. However, the secondary structure and toxicity of these protein specimens are determined by the chemical nature rather than the charge of phospholipids. These findings show that the charge of phospholipids can be a key factor that determines the stability and aggregation mechanism of amyloidogenic proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kiryl Zhaliazka
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Stanislav Rizevsky
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
- Department of Biotechnology, Binh Duong University, Thu Dau Mot 820000, Vietnam
| | - Mikhail Matveyenka
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Valeryia Serada
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | - Dmitry Kurouski
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
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Abstract
Short peptides designed to self-associate into amyloid fibers with metal ion-binding ability have been used to catalyze various types of chemical reactions. This manuscript demonstrates that one of these short-peptide fibers coordinated with CuII can exhibit melanosomal functions. The coordinated CuII and the amyloid structure itself are differentially functional in accelerating oxidative self-association of dopamine into melanin-like species and in regulating their material properties (e.g., water dispersion, morphology, and the density of unpaired electrons). The results have implications for the role of functional amyloids in melanin biosynthesis and for designing peptide-based supramolecular structures with various emergent functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeyeon Park
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyoung-daero, Yongin, Gyeonggi 17104, South Korea
| | - Hyeri Jeon
- Department of Chemistry, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul 04310, South Korea
| | - Min Young Lee
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyoung-daero, Yongin, Gyeonggi 17104, South Korea
| | - Hyojae Jeon
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyoung-daero, Yongin, Gyeonggi 17104, South Korea
| | - Sunbum Kwon
- Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, South Korea
| | - Seungwoo Hong
- Department of Chemistry, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul 04310, South Korea
| | - Kyungtae Kang
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyoung-daero, Yongin, Gyeonggi 17104, South Korea
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12
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Puławski W, Dzwolak W. Virtual Quasi-2D Intermediates as Building Blocks for Plausible Structural Models of Amyloid Fibrils from Proteins with Complex Topologies: A Case Study of Insulin. Langmuir 2022; 38:7024-7034. [PMID: 35617668 PMCID: PMC9178918 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c00699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Conformational transitions of globular proteins into amyloid fibrils are complex multistage processes exceedingly challenging to simulate using molecular dynamics (MD). Slow monomer diffusion rates and rugged free energy landscapes disfavor swift self-assembly of orderly amyloid architectures within timescales accessible to all-atom MD. Here, we conduct a multiscale MD study of the amyloidogenic self-assembly of insulin: a small protein with a complex topology defined by two polypeptide chains interlinked by three disulfide bonds. To avoid kinetic traps, unconventional preplanarized insulin conformations are used as amyloid building blocks. These starting conformers generated through uniaxial compression of the native monomer in various spatial directions represent 6 distinct (out of 16 conceivable) two-dimensional (2D) topological classes varying in N-/C-terminal segments of insulin's A- and B-chains being placed inside or outside of the central loop constituted by the middle sections of both chains and Cys7A-Cys7B/Cys19B-Cys20A disulfide bonds. Simulations of the fibrillar self-assembly are initiated through a biased in-register alignment of two, three, or four layers of flat conformers belonging to a single topological class. The various starting topologies are conserved throughout the self-assembly process resulting in polymorphic amyloid fibrils varying in structural features such as helical twist, presence of cavities, and overall stability. Some of the protofilament structures obtained in this work are highly compatible with the earlier biophysical studies on insulin amyloid and high-resolution studies on insulin-derived amyloidogenic peptide models postulating the presence of steric zippers. Our approach provides in silico means to study amyloidogenic tendencies and viable amyloid architectures of larger disulfide-constrained proteins with complex topologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wojciech Puławski
- Institute
of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy
of Sciences, 29/37 Sokołowska
Str., 01-142 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Wojciech Dzwolak
- Institute
of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy
of Sciences, 29/37 Sokołowska
Str., 01-142 Warsaw, Poland
- Faculty
of Chemistry, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, 1 Pasteur Str., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
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13
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Abstract
Amyloids are organized suprastructural polypeptide arrangements. The prevalence of amyloid-related processes of pathophysiological relevance has been linked to aging-related degenerative diseases. Besides the role of genetic polymorphisms on the relative risk of amyloid diseases, the contributions of nongenetic ontogenic cluster of factors remain elusive. In recent decades, mounting evidences have been suggesting the role of essential micronutrients, in particular transition metals, in the regulation of amyloidogenic processes, both directly (such as binding to amyloid proteins) or indirectly (such as regulating regulatory partners, processing enzymes, and membrane transporters). The features of transition metals as regulatory cofactors of amyloid proteins and the consequences of metal dyshomeostasis in triggering amyloidogenic processes, as well as the evidences showing amelioration of symptoms by dietary supplementation, suggest an exaptative role of metals in regulating amyloid pathways. The self- and cross-talk replicative nature of these amyloid processes along with their systemic distribution support the concept of their metastatic nature. The role of amyloidosis as nutrient sensors would act as intra- and transgenerational epigenetic metabolic programming factors determining health span and life span, viability, which could participate as an evolutive selective pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luís Maurício T R Lima
- Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - pbiotech, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Laboratory for Macromolecules (LAMAC-DIMAV), National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology - INMETRO, Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Tháyna Sisnande
- Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - pbiotech, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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14
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Lutter L, Al-Hilaly YK, Serpell CJ, Tuite MF, Wischik CM, Serpell LC, Xue WF. Structural Identification of Individual Helical Amyloid Filaments by Integration of Cryo-Electron Microscopy-Derived Maps in Comparative Morphometric Atomic Force Microscopy Image Analysis. J Mol Biol 2022; 434:167466. [PMID: 35077765 PMCID: PMC9005780 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The presence of amyloid fibrils is a hallmark of more than 50 human disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases and systemic amyloidoses. A key unresolved challenge in understanding the involvement of amyloid in disease is to explain the relationship between individual structural polymorphs of amyloid fibrils, in potentially mixed populations, and the specific pathologies with which they are associated. Although cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy methods have been successfully employed in recent years to determine the structures of amyloid fibrils with high resolution detail, they rely on ensemble averaging of fibril structures in the entire sample or significant subpopulations. Here, we report a method for structural identification of individual fibril structures imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM) by integration of high-resolution maps of amyloid fibrils determined by cryo-EM in comparative AFM image analysis. This approach was demonstrated using the hitherto structurally unresolved amyloid fibrils formed in vitro from a fragment of tau (297-391), termed 'dGAE'. Our approach established unequivocally that dGAE amyloid fibrils bear no structural relationship to heparin-induced tau fibrils formed in vitro. Furthermore, our comparative analysis resulted in the prediction that dGAE fibrils are structurally closely related to the paired helical filaments (PHFs) isolated from Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain tissue characterised by cryo-EM. These results show the utility of individual particle structural analysis using AFM, provide a workflow of how cryo-EM data can be incorporated into AFM image analysis and facilitate an integrated structural analysis of amyloid polymorphism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liisa Lutter
- School of Biosciences, Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, UK. https://twitter.com/LiisaLutter
| | - Youssra K Al-Hilaly
- Sussex Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, BN1 9QG Falmer, Brighton, UK; Chemistry Department, College of Science, Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq
| | - Christopher J Serpell
- School of Physical Sciences, Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NH Canterbury, UK. https://twitter.com/@SerpellLab
| | - Mick F Tuite
- School of Biosciences, Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, UK
| | - Claude M Wischik
- Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK; TauRx Therapeutics Ltd., Aberdeen, UK
| | - Louise C Serpell
- Sussex Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, BN1 9QG Falmer, Brighton, UK. https://twitter.com/@Serpell1
| | - Wei-Feng Xue
- School of Biosciences, Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, CT2 7NJ Canterbury, UK.
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15
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Linse S. High-Efficiency Expression and Purification of DNAJB6b Based on the pH-Modulation of Solubility and Denaturant-Modulation of Size. Molecules 2022; 27:418. [PMID: 35056736 PMCID: PMC8781954 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27020418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 12/31/2021] [Accepted: 01/02/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The chaperone DNAJB6b delays amyloid formation by suppressing the nucleation of amyloid fibrils and increases the solubility of amyloid-prone proteins. These dual effects on kinetics and equilibrium are related to the unusually high chemical potential of DNAJB6b in solution. As a consequence, the chaperone alone forms highly polydisperse oligomers, whereas in a mixture with an amyloid-forming protein or peptide it may form co-aggregates to gain a reduced chemical potential, thus enabling the amyloid peptide to increase its chemical potential leading to enhanced solubility of the peptide. Understanding such action at the level of molecular driving forces and detailed structures requires access to highly pure and sequence homogeneous DNAJB6b with no sequence extension. We therefore outline here an expression and purification protocol of the protein "as is" with no tags leading to very high levels of pure protein based on its physicochemical properties, including size and charge. The versatility of the protocol is demonstrated through the expression of an isotope labelled protein and seven variants, and the purification of three of these. The activity of the protein is bench-marked using aggregation assays. Two of the variants are used to produce a palette of fluorescent DNAJB6b labelled at an engineered N- or C-terminal cysteine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Linse
- Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
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16
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Castillo-Caceres C, Duran-Meza E, Diaz-Espinoza R. Design and Testing of Synthetic Catalytic Amyloids Based on the Active Site of Enzymes. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2538:207-216. [PMID: 35951302 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2529-3_14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The amyloid fold is nowadays recognized as an alternative conformation accessible to different proteins and peptides. The highly stable and ordered structural organization of amyloid fibrils can be exploited for the design of novel nanomaterials with emergent properties. Recent works have demonstrated that the functional features of the active site of enzymes can be partially recreated using this fold as a scaffold to develop catalytically active amyloids. We describe in this chapter a protocol to design functionally active amyloids that emerge from the self-assembly in vitro of synthetic peptides with sequences based on the active site of enzymes. Using this protocol, we show the development of amyloids that catalyze the metal-dependent hydrolysis of the phosphoanhydride bonds of nucleoside triphosphates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Castillo-Caceres
- Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Eva Duran-Meza
- Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Laboratorio de Biología Estructural y Molecular BEM, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Rodrigo Diaz-Espinoza
- Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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17
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Abstract
The FTIR (micro-)spectroscopy method applied to the study of the structural properties of different soluble and insoluble proteins will be illustrated. In particular, we will discuss the procedure to analyze proteins in form of hydrated films and in solution by means of attenuated total reflection (ATR) measurements. Moreover, we will describe the procedure to characterize bacterial inclusion bodies (IBs) and amyloid deposits within human tissues by means of FTIR microspectroscopy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diletta Ami
- Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
| | - Antonino Natalello
- Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
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18
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Giampà M, Amundarain MJ, Herrera MG, Tonali N, Dodero VI. Implementing Complementary Approaches to Shape the Mechanism of α-Synuclein Oligomerization as a Model of Amyloid Aggregation. Molecules 2021; 27:88. [PMID: 35011320 PMCID: PMC8747028 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27010088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibers is linked to more than forty still incurable cellular and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy, Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes, among others. The process of amyloid formation is a main feature of cell degeneration and disease pathogenesis. Despite being methodologically challenging, a complete understanding of the molecular mechanism of aggregation, especially in the early stages, is essential to find new biological targets for innovative therapies. Here, we reviewed selected examples on α-syn showing how complementary approaches, which employ different biophysical techniques and models, can better deal with a comprehensive study of amyloid aggregation. In addition to the monomer aggregation and conformational transition hypothesis, we reported new emerging theories regarding the self-aggregation of α-syn, such as the alpha-helix rich tetramer hypothesis, whose destabilization induce monomer aggregation; and the liquid-liquid phase separation hypothesis, which considers a phase separation of α-syn into liquid droplets as a primary event towards the evolution to aggregates. The final aim of this review is to show how multimodal methodologies provide a complete portrait of α-syn oligomerization and can be successfully extended to other protein aggregation diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Giampà
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres Gate 9, 7491 Trondheim, Norway;
| | - María J. Amundarain
- Instituto de Física del Sur (IFISUR), Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), CONICET, Av. L. N. Alem 1253, Bahía Blanca B8000CPB, Argentina;
| | - Maria Georgina Herrera
- Institute of Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany;
| | - Nicolò Tonali
- BioCIS, CNRS, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Paris-Saclay, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France
| | - Veronica I. Dodero
- Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Chemistry Department, Bielefeld University, Universitätstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
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19
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Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase-separation (LLPS) is a biological phenomenon wherein a metastable, concentrated droplet phase of biomolecules spontaneously forms. A link may exist between LLPS of proteins and the disease-related process of amyloid fibril formation; however, this connection is not fully understood. Here, we investigated the relationship between LLPS and aggregation of the C-terminal domain of TAR DNA-binding protein 43, an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-related protein known to both phase-separate and form amyloids, by monitoring conformational changes during droplet aging using Raman spectroscopy. We found that the earliest aggregation events occurred within droplets as indicated by the development of β-sheet structure and increased thioflavin-T emission. Interestingly, filamentous aggregates appeared outside the solidified droplets at a later time, suggestive that amyloid formation is a heterogeneous process under LLPS solution conditions. Furthermore, the secondary structure content of aggregated structures inside droplets are distinct from that in de novo fibrils, implying that fibril polymorphism develops as a result of different environments (LLPS vs. bulk solution), which may have pathological significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sydney O Shuster
- Laboratory of Protein Conformation and Dynamics, Biochemistry and Biophysics Center, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Jennifer C Lee
- Laboratory of Protein Conformation and Dynamics, Biochemistry and Biophysics Center, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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20
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Pras A, Houben B, Aprile FA, Seinstra R, Gallardo R, Janssen L, Hogewerf W, Gallrein C, De Vleeschouwer M, Mata‐Cabana A, Koopman M, Stroo E, de Vries M, Louise Edwards S, Kirstein J, Vendruscolo M, Falsone SF, Rousseau F, Schymkowitz J, Nollen EAA. The cellular modifier MOAG-4/SERF drives amyloid formation through charge complementation. EMBO J 2021; 40:e107568. [PMID: 34617299 PMCID: PMC8561633 DOI: 10.15252/embj.2020107568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
While aggregation-prone proteins are known to accelerate aging and cause age-related diseases, the cellular mechanisms that drive their cytotoxicity remain unresolved. The orthologous proteins MOAG-4, SERF1A, and SERF2 have recently been identified as cellular modifiers of such proteotoxicity. Using a peptide array screening approach on human amyloidogenic proteins, we found that SERF2 interacted with protein segments enriched in negatively charged and hydrophobic, aromatic amino acids. The absence of such segments, or the neutralization of the positive charge in SERF2, prevented these interactions and abolished the amyloid-promoting activity of SERF2. In protein aggregation models in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, protein aggregation and toxicity were suppressed by mutating the endogenous locus of MOAG-4 to neutralize charge. Our data indicate that MOAG-4 and SERF2 drive protein aggregation and toxicity by interactions with negatively charged segments in aggregation-prone proteins. Such charge interactions might accelerate primary nucleation of amyloid by initiating structural changes and by decreasing colloidal stability. Our study points at charge interactions between cellular modifiers and amyloidogenic proteins as potential targets for interventions to reduce age-related protein toxicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anita Pras
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Bert Houben
- VIB‐KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease ResearchLeuvenBelgium
- Switch LaboratoryDepartment of Cellular and Molecular MedicineKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Francesco A Aprile
- Department of ChemistryCentre for Misfolding DiseasesUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Present address:
Department of ChemistryMolecular Sciences Research HubImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Renée Seinstra
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Rodrigo Gallardo
- VIB‐KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease ResearchLeuvenBelgium
- Switch LaboratoryDepartment of Cellular and Molecular MedicineKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Present address:
Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular BiologySchool of Molecular and Cellular BiologyUniversity of LeedsLeedsUK
| | - Leen Janssen
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Wytse Hogewerf
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Christian Gallrein
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Cell BiologyLeibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FMP)BerlinGermany
| | - Matthias De Vleeschouwer
- VIB‐KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease ResearchLeuvenBelgium
- Switch LaboratoryDepartment of Cellular and Molecular MedicineKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Alejandro Mata‐Cabana
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Mandy Koopman
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Esther Stroo
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Minke de Vries
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Samantha Louise Edwards
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Janine Kirstein
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Cell BiologyLeibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FMP)BerlinGermany
- Faculty of Biology & ChemistryUniversity of BremenBremenGermany
| | - Michele Vendruscolo
- Department of ChemistryCentre for Misfolding DiseasesUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | | | - Frederic Rousseau
- VIB‐KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease ResearchLeuvenBelgium
- Switch LaboratoryDepartment of Cellular and Molecular MedicineKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Joost Schymkowitz
- VIB‐KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease ResearchLeuvenBelgium
- Switch LaboratoryDepartment of Cellular and Molecular MedicineKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Ellen A A Nollen
- European Research Institute for the Biology of AgeingUniversity of GroningenUniversity Medical Centre GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
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21
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Kim E, Jeon J, Zhu Y, Hoppe ED, Jun YS, Genin GM, Zhang F. A Biosynthetic Hybrid Spidroin-Amyloid-Mussel Foot Protein for Underwater Adhesion on Diverse Surfaces. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021; 13:48457-48468. [PMID: 34633172 PMCID: PMC10041942 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c14182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Strong underwater adhesives are attractive materials for biomedical healing and underwater repair, but their success in applications has been limited, owing to challenges with underwater setting and with balancing surface adhesion and cohesion. Here, we applied synthetic biology approaches to overcome these challenges through design and synthesis of a novel hybrid protein consisting of the zipper-forming domains of an amyloid protein, flexible spider silk sequences, and a dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA)-containing mussel foot protein (Mfp). This partially structured, hybrid protein can self-assemble into a semi-crystalline hydrogel that exhibits high strength and toughness as well as strong underwater adhesion to a variety of surfaces, including difficult-to-adhere plastics, tendon, and skin. The hydrogel allows selective debonding by oxidation or iron-chelating treatments. Both the material design and the biosynthetic approach explored in this study will inspire future work for a wide range of hybrid protein-based materials with tunable properties and broad applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugene Kim
- Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Juya Jeon
- Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Yaguang Zhu
- Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Ethan D. Hoppe
- NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering MechanoBiology, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Young-Shin Jun
- Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Guy M. Genin
- NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering MechanoBiology, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
- Division of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Fuzhong Zhang
- Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
- Division of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
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22
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Roterman I, Stapor K, Fabian P, Konieczny L. In Silico Modeling of the Influence of Environment on Amyloid Folding Using FOD-M Model. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:10587. [PMID: 34638925 PMCID: PMC8508659 DOI: 10.3390/ijms221910587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Revised: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of the environment in amyloid formation based on the fuzzy oil drop model (FOD) is discussed here. This model assumes that the hydrophobicity distribution within a globular protein is consistent with a 3D Gaussian (3DG) distribution. Such a distribution is interpreted as the idealized effect of the presence of a polar solvent-water. A chain with a sequence of amino acids (which are bipolar molecules) determined by evolution recreates a micelle-like structure with varying accuracy. The membrane, which is a specific environment with opposite characteristics to the polar aquatic environment, directs the hydrophobic residues towards the surface. The modification of the FOD model to the FOD-M form takes into account the specificity of the cell membrane. It consists in "inverting" the 3DG distribution (complementing the Gaussian distribution), which expresses the exposure of hydrophobic residues on the surface. It turns out that the influence of the environment for any protein (soluble or membrane-anchored) is the result of a consensus factor expressing the participation of the polar environment and the "inverted" environment. The ratio between the proportion of the aqueous and the "reversed" environment turns out to be a characteristic property of a given protein, including amyloid protein in particular. The structure of amyloid proteins has been characterized in the context of prion, intrinsically disordered, and other non-complexing proteins to cover a wider spectrum of molecules with the given characteristics based on the FOD-M model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irena Roterman
- Department of Bioinformatics and Telemedicine, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Medyczna 7, 30-688 Kraków, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Stapor
- Institute of Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland; (K.S.); (P.F.)
| | - Piotr Fabian
- Institute of Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland; (K.S.); (P.F.)
| | - Leszek Konieczny
- Chair of Medical Biochemistry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Kopernika 7, 31-034 Kraków, Poland;
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23
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Sawaya MR, Hughes MP, Rodriguez JA, Riek R, Eisenberg DS. The expanding amyloid family: Structure, stability, function, and pathogenesis. Cell 2021; 184:4857-4873. [PMID: 34534463 PMCID: PMC8772536 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The hidden world of amyloid biology has suddenly snapped into atomic-level focus, revealing over 80 amyloid protein fibrils, both pathogenic and functional. Unlike globular proteins, amyloid proteins flatten and stack into unbranched fibrils. Stranger still, a single protein sequence can adopt wildly different two-dimensional conformations, yielding distinct fibril polymorphs. Thus, an amyloid protein may define distinct diseases depending on its conformation. At the heart of this conformational variability lies structural frustrations. In functional amyloids, evolution tunes frustration levels to achieve either stability or sensitivity according to the fibril's biological function, accounting for the vast versatility of the amyloid fibril scaffold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Sawaya
- Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA-DOE Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Michael P Hughes
- Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA-DOE Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Jose A Rodriguez
- Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA-DOE Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Roland Riek
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Vladimir Prelog Weg 2, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - David S Eisenberg
- Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA-DOE Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
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Chang M, Fan S, Lu R, Tao F, Yang F, Han Q, Liu J, Yang P. Suppression of Sunscreen Leakage in Water by Amyloid-like Protein Aggregates. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021; 13:42451-42460. [PMID: 34486369 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c11307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
A sunscreen offers indispensable skin protection against UV damage and related skin diseases. However, due to the poor interfacial stability of sunscreen coatings on the skin, the synthetic ingredients in sunscreen creams easily fall off and enter aquatic environments, causing large ecological hazards and skin protection failure. Herein, we tackle this issue by introducing amyloid-like protein aggregates into a sunscreen to noticeably enhance the interfacial robustness of sunscreen coatings on the skin. The synthesis of such an agent to suppress sunscreen leakage can be achieved by manipulating the phase transition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a mild aqueous solution at room temperature. The resulting phase-transitioned BSA (PTB) aggregates effectively entrap the sunscreen ingredients to generate a uniform cream coating on the skin with robust amyloid-mediated interfacial adhesion stability. With continuous flushing in aquatic environments, such as salt water and seawater, this PTB-modified sunscreen (PTB sunscreen) coated on the skin maintains a retention ratio as high as >92%, which is 2-10 times higher than those of commercially available sunscreen products. The high retention ratio of the PTB sunscreen in aquatic environments demonstrates the great potential of amyloid-like protein aggregates in the development of leakage-free sunscreens with low ecosystem hazards and long-lasting UV protection in aquatic environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengjie Chang
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
| | - Simeng Fan
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
| | - Runqiu Lu
- Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
| | - Fei Tao
- Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
| | - Facui Yang
- Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
| | - Qian Han
- Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
| | - Jun Liu
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
| | - Peng Yang
- Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
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Sprunger ML, Jackrel ME. Prion-Like Proteins in Phase Separation and Their Link to Disease. Biomolecules 2021; 11:biom11071014. [PMID: 34356638 PMCID: PMC8301953 DOI: 10.3390/biom11071014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Revised: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Aberrant protein folding underpins many neurodegenerative diseases as well as certain myopathies and cancers. Protein misfolding can be driven by the presence of distinctive prion and prion-like regions within certain proteins. These prion and prion-like regions have also been found to drive liquid-liquid phase separation. Liquid-liquid phase separation is thought to be an important physiological process, but one that is prone to malfunction. Thus, aberrant liquid-to-solid phase transitions may drive protein aggregation and fibrillization, which could give rise to pathological inclusions. Here, we review prions and prion-like proteins, their roles in phase separation and disease, as well as potential therapeutic approaches to counter aberrant phase transitions.
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Abstract
The peptide hormone glucagon is prescribed as a pharmaceutical compound to treat diabetic hypoglycemia. However, at the acidic pH where it is highly soluble, glucagon rapidly aggregates into inactive and cytotoxic amyloid fibrils. The recently determined high-resolution structure of these fibrils revealed various stabilizing molecular interactions. On the basis of this structure, we have now designed four arginine mutants of glucagon that resist fibrillization at pharmaceutical concentrations for weeks. An S2R, T29R double mutant and a T29R single mutant remove a hydrogen-bonding interaction in the wild-type fibril, whereas a Y13R, A19R double mutant and a Y13R mutant remove a cation-π interaction. 1H solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and ultraviolet absorbance data indicate that these mutants remain soluble in pH 2 buffer under quiescent conditions at concentrations of ≤4 mg/mL for weeks. Under stressed conditions with high salt concentrations and agitation, these mutants fibrillize significantly more slowly than the wild type. The S2R, T29R mutant and the T29R mutant exhibit a mixture of random coil and α-helical conformations, while the Y13R mutant is completely random coil. The mutation sites are chosen to be uninvolved in strong interactions with the glucagon receptor in the active structure of the peptide. Therefore, these arginine mutants of glucagon are promising alternative compounds for treating hypoglycemia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin D. Gelenter
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Aurelio J. Dregni
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Pu Duan
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Mei Hong
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
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Diociaiuti M, Bonanni R, Cariati I, Frank C, D’Arcangelo G. Amyloid Prefibrillar Oligomers: The Surprising Commonalities in Their Structure and Activity. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22126435. [PMID: 34208561 PMCID: PMC8235680 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been proposed that a “common core” of pathologic pathways exists for the large family of amyloid-associated neurodegenerations, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes and Creutzfeldt–Jacob’s Disease. Aggregates of the involved proteins, independently from their primary sequence, induced neuron membrane permeabilization able to trigger an abnormal Ca2+ influx leading to synaptotoxicity, resulting in reduced expression of synaptic proteins and impaired synaptic transmission. Emerging evidence is now focusing on low-molecular-weight prefibrillar oligomers (PFOs), which mimic bacterial pore-forming toxins that form well-ordered oligomeric membrane-spanning pores. At the same time, the neuron membrane composition and its chemical microenvironment seem to play a pivotal role. In fact, the brain of AD patients contains increased fractions of anionic lipids able to favor cationic influx. However, up to now the existence of a specific “common structure” of the toxic aggregate, and a “common mechanism” by which it induces neuronal damage, synaptotoxicity and impaired synaptic transmission, is still an open hypothesis. In this review, we gathered information concerning this hypothesis, focusing on the proteins linked to several amyloid diseases. We noted commonalities in their structure and membrane activity, and their ability to induce Ca2+ influx, neurotoxicity, synaptotoxicity and impaired synaptic transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Diociaiuti
- Centro Nazionale Malattie Rare, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
- Correspondence:
| | - Roberto Bonanni
- Department of Systems Medicine, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (R.B.); (G.D.)
| | - Ida Cariati
- PhD in Medical-Surgical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences and Translational Medicine, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Claudio Frank
- UniCamillus-Saint Camillus International University of Health Sciences, Via di Sant’Alessandro 8, 00131 Rome, Italy;
| | - Giovanna D’Arcangelo
- Department of Systems Medicine, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (R.B.); (G.D.)
- Centre of Space Bio-Medicine, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
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Morgan GJ. Barriers to Small Molecule Drug Discovery for Systemic Amyloidosis. Molecules 2021; 26:molecules26123571. [PMID: 34208058 PMCID: PMC8230685 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26123571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2021] [Revised: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Inhibition of amyloid fibril formation could benefit patients with systemic amyloidosis. In this group of diseases, deposition of amyloid fibrils derived from normally soluble proteins leads to progressive tissue damage and organ failure. Amyloid formation is a complex process, where several individual steps could be targeted. Several small molecules have been proposed as inhibitors of amyloid formation. However, the exact mechanism of action for a molecule is often not known, which impedes medicinal chemistry efforts to develop more potent molecules. Furthermore, commonly used assays are prone to artifacts that must be controlled for. Here, potential mechanisms by which small molecules could inhibit aggregation of immunoglobulin light-chain dimers, the precursor proteins for amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, are studied in assays that recapitulate different aspects of amyloidogenesis in vitro. One molecule reduced unfolding-coupled proteolysis of light chains, but no molecules inhibited aggregation of light chains or disrupted pre-formed amyloid fibrils. This work demonstrates the challenges associated with drug development for amyloidosis, but also highlights the potential to combine therapies that target different aspects of amyloidosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gareth J Morgan
- Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Amyloidosis Center, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Boston University, Boston, MA 02118, USA
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29
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Otzen DE, Dueholm MS, Najarzadeh Z, Knowles TPJ, Ruggeri FS. In situ Sub-Cellular Identification of Functional Amyloids in Bacteria and Archaea by Infrared Nanospectroscopy. Small Methods 2021; 5:e2001002. [PMID: 34927901 DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202001002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Formation of amyloid structures is originally linked to human disease. However, amyloid materials are found extensively in the animal and bacterial world where they stabilize intra- and extra-cellular environments like biofilms or cell envelopes. To date, functional amyloids have largely been studied using optical microscopy techniques in vivo, or after removal from their biological context for higher-resolution studies in vitro. Furthermore, conventional microscopies only indirectly identify amyloids based on morphology or unspecific amyloid dyes. Here, the high chemical and spatial (≈20 nm) resolution of Infrared Nanospectroscopy (AFM-IR) to investigate functional amyloid from Escherichia coli (curli), Pseudomonas (Fap), and the Archaea Methanosaeta (MspA) in situ is exploited. It is demonstrated that AFM-IR identifies amyloid protein within single intact cells through their cross β-sheet secondary structure, which has a unique spectroscopic signature in the amide I band of protein. Using this approach, nanoscale-resolved chemical images and spectra of purified curli and Methanosaeta cell wall sheaths are provided. The results highlight significant differences in secondary structure between E. coli cells with and without curli. Taken together, these results suggest that AFM-IR is a new and powerful label-free tool for in situ investigations of the biophysical state of functional amyloid and biomolecules in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel E Otzen
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, Aarhus C, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark
| | - Morten S Dueholm
- Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7H, Aalborg, 9220, Denmark
| | - Zahra Najarzadeh
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, Aarhus C, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark
| | - Tuomas P J Knowles
- Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB30HE, UK
| | - Francesco Simone Ruggeri
- Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK
- Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Wageningen University, Wageningen, WE 6703, the Netherlands
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Wageningen University, Wageningen, WE 6703, the Netherlands
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30
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Somberg NH, Gelenter MD, Hong M. Comparative analysis of 13C chemical shifts of β-sheet amyloid proteins and outer membrane proteins. J Biomol NMR 2021; 75:151-166. [PMID: 33844106 PMCID: PMC8828358 DOI: 10.1007/s10858-021-00364-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Cross-β amyloid fibrils and membrane-bound β-barrels are two important classes of β-sheet proteins. To investigate whether there are systematic differences in the backbone and sidechain conformations of these two families of proteins, here we analyze the 13C chemical shifts of 17 amyloid proteins and 7 β-barrel membrane proteins whose high-resolution structures have been determined by NMR. These 24 proteins contain 373 β-sheet residues in amyloid fibrils and 521 β-sheet residues in β-barrel membrane proteins. The 13C chemical shifts are shown in 2D 13C-13C correlation maps, and the amino acid residues are categorized by two criteria: (1) whether they occur in β-strand segments or in loops and turns; (2) whether they are water-exposed or dry, facing other residues or lipids. We also examine the abundance of each amino acid in amyloid proteins and β-barrels and compare the sidechain rotameric populations. The 13C chemical shifts indicate that hydrophobic methyl-rich residues and aromatic residues exhibit larger static sidechain conformational disorder in amyloid fibrils than in β-barrels. In comparison, hydroxyl- and amide-containing polar residues have more ordered sidechains and more ordered backbones in amyloid fibrils than in β-barrels. These trends can be explained by steric zipper interactions between β-sheet planes in cross-β fibrils, and by the interactions of β-barrel residues with lipid and water in the membrane. These conformational trends should be useful for structural analysis of amyloid fibrils and β-barrels based principally on NMR chemical shifts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah H Somberg
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Martin D Gelenter
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Mei Hong
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 170 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
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31
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Munir F, Gul S, Asif A, Minhas FUAA. MILAMP: Multiple Instance Prediction of Amyloid Proteins. IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform 2021; 18:1142-1150. [PMID: 31443048 DOI: 10.1109/tcbb.2019.2936846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Amyloid proteins are implicated in several diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, prion diseases, etc. In order to characterize the amyloidogenicity of a given protein, it is important to locate the amyloid forming hotspot regions within the protein as well as to analyze the effects of mutations on these proteins. The biochemical and biological assays used for this purpose can be facilitated by computational means. This paper presents a machine learning method that can predict hotspot amyloidogenic regions within proteins and characterize changes in their amyloidogenicity due to point mutations. The proposed method called MILAMP (Multiple Instance Learning of AMyloid Proteins) achieves high accuracy for identification of amyloid proteins, hotspot localization, and prediction of mutation effects on amyloidogenicity by integrating heterogenous data sources and exploiting common predictive patterns across these tasks through multiple instance learning. The paper presents comprehensive benchmarking experiments to test the predictive performance of MILAMP in comparison to previously published state of the art techniques for amyloid prediction. The python code for the implementation and webserver for MILAMP is available at the URL: http://faculty.pieas.edu.pk/fayyaz/software.html#MILAMP.
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32
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Co NT, Li MS. Effect of Surface Roughness on Aggregation of Polypeptide Chains: A Monte Carlo Study. Biomolecules 2021; 11:biom11040596. [PMID: 33919640 PMCID: PMC8072528 DOI: 10.3390/biom11040596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 04/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The self-assembly of amyloidogenic peptides and proteins into fibrillar structures has been intensively studied for several decades, because it seems to be associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon is important for identifying an effective therapy for the corresponding diseases. Protein aggregation in living organisms very often takes place on surfaces like membranes and the impact of a surface on this process depends not only on the surface chemistry but also on its topology. Our goal was to develop a simple lattice model for studying the role of surface roughness in the aggregation kinetics of polypeptide chains and the morphology of aggregates. We showed that, consistent with the experiment, an increase in roughness slows down the fibril formation, and this process becomes inhibited at a very highly level of roughness. We predicted a subtle catalytic effect that a slightly rough surface promotes the self-assembly of polypeptide chains but does not delay it. This effect occurs when the interaction between the surface and polypeptide chains is moderate and can be explained by taking into account the competition between energy and entropy factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nguyen Truong Co
- Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland;
| | - Mai Suan Li
- Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland;
- Institute for Computational Science and Technology, SBI Building, Quang Trung Software City, Tan Chanh Hiep Ward, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
- Correspondence:
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Do HQ, Hewetson A, Borcik CG, Hastert MC, Whelly S, Wylie BJ, Sutton RB, Cornwall GA. Cross-seeding between the functional amyloidogenic CRES and CRES3 family members and their regulation of Aβ assembly. J Biol Chem 2021; 296:100250. [PMID: 33384380 PMCID: PMC7948811 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.ra120.015307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Revised: 12/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Accumulating evidence shows that amyloids perform biological roles. We previously showed that an amyloid matrix composed of four members of the CRES subgroup of reproductive family 2 cystatins is a normal component of the mouse epididymal lumen. The cellular mechanisms that control the assembly of these and other functional amyloid structures, however, remain unclear. We speculated that cross-seeding between CRES members could be a mechanism to control the assembly of the endogenous functional amyloid. Herein we used thioflavin T assays and negative stain transmission electron microscopy to explore this possibility. We show that CRES3 rapidly formed large networks of beaded chains that possessed the characteristic cross-β reflections of amyloid when examined by X-ray diffraction. The beaded amyloids accelerated the amyloidogenesis of CRES, a less amyloidogenic family member, in seeding assays during which beads transitioned into films and fibrils. Similarly, CRES seeds expedited CRES3 amyloidogenesis, although less efficiently than the CRES3 seeding of CRES. These studies suggest that CRES and CRES3 hetero-oligomerize and that CRES3 beaded amyloids may function as stable preassembled seeds. The CRES3 beaded amyloids also facilitated assembly of the unrelated amyloidogenic precursor Aβ by providing a surface for polymerization though, intriguingly, CRES3 (and CRES) monomer/early oligomer profoundly inhibited Aβ assembly. The cross-seeding between the CRES subgroup members is similar to that which occurs between bacterial curli proteins suggesting that it may be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to control the assembly of some functional amyloids. Further, interactions between unrelated amyloidogenic precursors may also be a means to regulate functional amyloid assembly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hoa Quynh Do
- Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | - Aveline Hewetson
- Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | - Collin G Borcik
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | | | - Sandra Whelly
- Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | - Benjamin J Wylie
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | - Roger Bryan Sutton
- Department of Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA
| | - Gail A Cornwall
- Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
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Gahane AY, Thakur AK. Embryonic cuticle from artemia cyst shell displays amyloid-like characteristics and nontoxicity after oral consumption. J Biosci 2021; 46:14. [PMID: 33709966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Artemia cysts are the essential food product for industrial larviculture of fishes. The cyst shell protects the artemia embryo from mechanical damage, ultraviolet light, excessive water loss, thermal variation and anoxia condition. However, the underlying mechanism of such environmental protection is largely unclear. The embryonic cuticle of cyst shell mainly constitutes chitin and proteins. Absence of cyst shell proteins compromises embryo survival. In literature, there are few examples of functional amyloids where proteins adapt amyloid-like structures and act as protective covering. We hypothesized that the proteins from the embryonic cuticle of artemia cyst shell may have amyloid-like properties. Using FTIR and CD analysis, we found that proteins in embryonic cuticle have high β-sheet secondary structures. Embryonic cuticles displayed high Congo red binding affinity and stained samples showed apple-green birefringence under polarized light, confirming the presence of amyloid-like structures. Amyloid structures have a tendency to propagate and cause amyloidosis. However, feeding of amyloid rich embryonic cuticles to zebrafish did not show any signs of discomfort or morbidity and amyloid deposition. Taken together, the study reveals that amyloid-like structures are present in embryonic cuticle of artemia cyst and their consumption does not induce amyloidosis in zebrafish.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avinash Y Gahane
- Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208 016, India
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35
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Tavanti F, Pedone A, Menziani MC. Disclosing the Interaction of Gold Nanoparticles with Aβ(1-40) Monomers through Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 22:ijms22010026. [PMID: 33375086 PMCID: PMC7792802 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22010026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Revised: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyloid-β aggregation is one of the principal causes of amyloidogenic diseases that lead to the loss of neuronal cells and to cognitive impairments. The use of gold nanoparticles treating amyloidogenic diseases is a promising approach, because the chemistry of the gold surface can be tuned in order to have a specific binding, obtaining effective tools to control the aggregation. In this paper, we show, by means of Replica Exchange Solute Tempering Molecular Simulations, how electrostatic interactions drive the absorption of Amyloid-β monomers onto citrates-capped gold nanoparticles. Importantly, upon binding, amyloid monomers show a reduced propensity in forming β-sheets secondary structures that are characteristics of mature amyloid fibrils.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Tavanti
- CNR-NANO Research Center, Via Campi 213/a, 41125 Modena, Italy
- Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy; (A.P.); (M.C.M.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Alfonso Pedone
- Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy; (A.P.); (M.C.M.)
| | - Maria Cristina Menziani
- Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy; (A.P.); (M.C.M.)
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36
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Beşli N, Yenmis G. Assessment of the Interaction of Aggregatin Protein with Amyloid-Beta (Aβ) at the Molecular Level via In Silico Analysis. Acta Chim Slov 2020; 67:1262-1272. [PMID: 33533447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is a major neurodegenerative illness whose prevalence is increasing worldwide but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. There is some scientific evidence that the molecular complexity of Alzheimer's pathophysiology is associated with the formation of extracellular amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. A novel cross- phenotype association analysis of imaging genetics reported a brain atrophy susceptibility gene, namely FAM222A and the protein Aggregatin encoded by FAM222A interacts with amyloid-beta (A?)-peptide (1-42) through its N-terminal A? binding domain and facilitates A? aggregation. The function of Aggregatin protein is unknown, and its three-dimensional structure has not been analyzed experimentally yet. Our goal was to investigate the interaction of Aggregatin with A? in detail by in silico analysis, including the 3D structure prediction analysis of Aggregatin protein by homology modeling. Our analysis verified the interaction of the C-terminal domain of model protein with the N-terminal domain of A?. This is the first attempt to demonstrate the interaction of Aggregatin with the A?. These results confirmed in vitro and in vivo study reports claiming FAM222A helping to ease the aggregating of the A?-peptide.
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Li Y, Zhang Z, Teng Z, Liu X. PredAmyl-MLP: Prediction of Amyloid Proteins Using Multilayer Perceptron. Comput Math Methods Med 2020; 2020:8845133. [PMID: 33294004 PMCID: PMC7700051 DOI: 10.1155/2020/8845133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Revised: 10/06/2020] [Accepted: 10/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Amyloid is generally an aggregate of insoluble fibrin; its abnormal deposition is the pathogenic mechanism of various diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes. Therefore, accurately identifying amyloid is necessary to understand its role in pathology. We proposed a machine learning-based prediction model called PredAmyl-MLP, which consists of the following three steps: feature extraction, feature selection, and classification. In the step of feature extraction, seven feature extraction algorithms and different combinations of them are investigated, and the combination of SVMProt-188D and tripeptide composition (TPC) is selected according to the experimental results. In the step of feature selection, maximum relevant maximum distance (MRMD) and binomial distribution (BD) are, respectively, used to remove the redundant or noise features, and the appropriate features are selected according to the experimental results. In the step of classification, we employed multilayer perceptron (MLP) to train the prediction model. The 10-fold cross-validation results show that the overall accuracy of PredAmyl-MLP reached 91.59%, and the performance was better than the existing methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanjuan Li
- College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
| | - Zitong Zhang
- College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
| | - Zhixia Teng
- College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
| | - Xiaoyan Liu
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150040, China
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Ostermeier L, de Oliveira GAP, Dzwolak W, Silva JL, Winter R. Exploring the polymorphism, conformational dynamics and function of amyloidogenic peptides and proteins by temperature and pressure modulation. Biophys Chem 2020; 268:106506. [PMID: 33221697 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpc.2020.106506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Revised: 11/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Our understanding of amyloid structures and the mechanisms by which disease-associated peptides and proteins self-assemble into these fibrillar aggregates, has advanced considerably in recent years. It is also established that amyloid fibrils are generally polymorphic. The molecular structures of the aggregation intermediates and the causes of molecular and structural polymorphism are less understood, however. Such information is mandatory to explain the pathological diversity of amyloid diseases. What is also clear is that not only protein mutations, but also the physiological milieu, i.e. pH, cosolutes, crowding and surface interactions, have an impact on fibril formation. In this minireview, we focus on the effect of the less explored physical parameters temperature and pressure on the fibrillization propensity of proteins and how these variables can be used to reveal additional mechanistic information about intermediate states of fibril formation and molecular and structural polymorphism. Generally, amyloids are very stable and can resist harsh environmental conditions, such as extreme pH, high temperature and high pressure, and can hence serve as valuable functional amyloid. As an example, we discuss the effect of temperature and pressure on the catalytic activity of peptide amyloid fibrils that exhibit enzymatic activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena Ostermeier
- Physical Chemistry I - Biophysical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn Street 4a, 44227 Dortmund, Germany
| | - Guilherme A P de Oliveira
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis, National Institute of Science and Technology for Structural Biology and Bioimaging, National Center of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Jiri Jonas, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-901, Brazil
| | - Wojciech Dzwolak
- Faculty of Chemistry, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Pasteur 1 Str., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
| | - Jerson L Silva
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis, National Institute of Science and Technology for Structural Biology and Bioimaging, National Center of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Jiri Jonas, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-901, Brazil.
| | - Roland Winter
- Physical Chemistry I - Biophysical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn Street 4a, 44227 Dortmund, Germany.
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Muronetz VI, Barinova K, Kudryavtseva S, Medvedeva M, Melnikova A, Sevostyanova I, Semenyuk P, Stroylova Y, Sova M. Natural and Synthetic Derivatives of Hydroxycinnamic Acid Modulating the Pathological Transformation of Amyloidogenic Proteins. Molecules 2020; 25:E4647. [PMID: 33053854 PMCID: PMC7594092 DOI: 10.3390/molecules25204647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2020] [Revised: 10/08/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
This review presents the main properties of hydroxycinnamic acid (HCA) derivatives and their potential application as agents for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. It is partially focused on the successful use of these compounds as inhibitors of amyloidogenic transformation of proteins. Firstly, the prerequisites for the emergence of interest in HCA derivatives, including natural compounds, are described. A separate section is devoted to synthesis and properties of HCA derivatives. Then, the results of molecular modeling of HCA derivatives with prion protein as well as with α-synuclein fibrils are summarized, followed by detailed analysis of the experiments on the effect of natural and synthetic HCA derivatives, as well as structurally similar phenylacetic and benzoic acid derivatives, on the pathological transformation of prion protein and α-synuclein. The ability of HCA derivatives to prevent amyloid transformation of some amyloidogenic proteins, and their presence not only in food products but also as natural metabolites in human blood and tissues, makes them promising for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases of amyloid nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vladimir I. Muronetz
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
- Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia; (S.K.); (M.M.)
| | - Kseniya Barinova
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
| | - Sofia Kudryavtseva
- Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia; (S.K.); (M.M.)
| | - Maria Medvedeva
- Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia; (S.K.); (M.M.)
| | - Aleksandra Melnikova
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
- Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia; (S.K.); (M.M.)
| | - Irina Sevostyanova
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
| | - Pavel Semenyuk
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
| | - Yulia Stroylova
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; (K.B.); (A.M.); (I.S.); (P.S.); (Y.S.)
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University Trubetskaya St. 8, Bldg. 2, 119991 Moscow, Russia
| | - Matej Sova
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 7, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;
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Mitra A, Sarkar N. Sequence and structure-based peptides as potent amyloid inhibitors: A review. Arch Biochem Biophys 2020; 695:108614. [PMID: 33010227 DOI: 10.1016/j.abb.2020.108614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2020] [Revised: 09/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Misfolded and natively disordered globular proteins tend to aggregate together in an interwoven fashion to form fibrous, proteinaceous deposits referred to as amyloid fibrils. Formation and deposition of such insoluble fibrils are the characteristic features of a broad group of diseases, known as amyloidosis. Some of these proteins are known to cause several degenerative disorders in humans, such as Amyloid-Beta (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (hIAPP, amylin) in type 2 diabetes, α-synuclein (α-syn) in Parkinson's disease (PD) and so on. The fact that these proteins do not share any significant sequence or structural homology in their native states make therapy quite challenging. However, it is observed that aggregation-prone proteins and peptides tend to adopt a similar type of secondary structure during the formation of fibrils. Rationally designed peptides can be a potent inhibitor that has been shown to disrupt the fibril structure by binding specifically to the amyloidogenic region(s) within a protein. The following review will analyze the inhibitory potency of both sequence-based and structure-based small peptides that have been shown to inhibit amyloidogenesis of proteins such as Aβ, human amylin, and α-synuclein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Mitra
- Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, 769008, Odisha, India
| | - Nandini Sarkar
- Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, 769008, Odisha, India.
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Xu SCS, LoRicco JG, Bishop AC, James NA, Huynh WH, McCallum SA, Roan NR, Makhatadze GI. Sequence-independent recognition of the amyloid structural motif by GFP protein family. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:22122-22127. [PMID: 32839332 PMCID: PMC7486722 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001457117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Cnidarian fluorescent protein (FP) derivatives such as GFP, mCherry, and mEOS2 have been widely used to monitor gene expression and protein localization through biological imaging because they are considered functionally inert. We demonstrate that FPs specifically bind amyloid fibrils formed from many natural peptides and proteins. FPs do not bind other nonamyloid fibrillar structures such as microtubules or actin filaments and do not bind to amorphous aggregates. FPs can also bind small aggregates formed during the lag phase and early elongation phase of fibril formation and can inhibit amyloid fibril formation in a dose-dependent manner. These findings suggest caution should be taken in interpreting FP-fusion protein localization data when amyloid structures may be present. Given the pathological significance of amyloid-related species in some diseases, detection and inhibition of amyloid fibril formation using FPs can provide insights on developing diagnostic tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sherry C S Xu
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Josephine G LoRicco
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Anthony C Bishop
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Nathan A James
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Welby H Huynh
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Scott A McCallum
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
| | - Nadia R Roan
- Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158
- Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | - George I Makhatadze
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180;
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
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Wickner RB, Edskes HK, Son M, Wu S, Niznikiewicz M. How Do Yeast Cells Contend with Prions? Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:ijms21134742. [PMID: 32635197 PMCID: PMC7369894 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21134742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 06/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Infectious proteins (prions) include an array of human (mammalian) and yeast amyloid diseases in which a protein or peptide forms a linear β-sheet-rich filament, at least one functional amyloid prion, and two functional infectious proteins unrelated to amyloid. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, at least eight anti-prion systems deal with pathogenic amyloid yeast prions by (1) blocking their generation (Ssb1,2, Ssz1, Zuo1), (2) curing most variants as they arise (Btn2, Cur1, Hsp104, Upf1,2,3, Siw14), and (3) limiting the pathogenicity of variants that do arise and propagate (Sis1, Lug1). Known mechanisms include facilitating proper folding of the prion protein (Ssb1,2, Ssz1, Zuo1), producing highly asymmetric segregation of prion filaments in mitosis (Btn2, Hsp104), competing with the amyloid filaments for prion protein monomers (Upf1,2,3), and regulation of levels of inositol polyphosphates (Siw14). It is hoped that the discovery of yeast anti-prion systems and elucidation of their mechanisms will facilitate finding analogous or homologous systems in humans, whose manipulation may be useful in treatment.
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Nil Z, Hervás R, Gerbich T, Leal P, Yu Z, Saraf A, Sardiu M, Lange JJ, Yi K, Unruh J, Slaughter B, Si K. Amyloid-like Assembly Activates a Phosphatase in the Developing Drosophila Embryo. Cell 2020; 178:1403-1420.e21. [PMID: 31491385 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Prion-like proteins can assume distinct conformational and physical states in the same cell. Sequence analysis suggests that prion-like proteins are prevalent in various species; however, it remains unclear what functional space they occupy in multicellular organisms. Here, we report the identification of a prion-like protein, Herzog (CG5830), through a multimodal screen in Drosophila melanogaster. Herzog functions as a membrane-associated phosphatase and controls embryonic patterning, likely being involved in TGF-β/BMP and FGF/EGF signaling pathways. Remarkably, monomeric Herzog is enzymatically inactive and becomes active upon amyloid-like assembly. The prion-like domain of Herzog is necessary for both its assembly and membrane targeting. Removal of the prion-like domain impairs activity, while restoring assembly on the membrane using a heterologous prion-like domain and membrane-targeting motif can restore phosphatase activity. This study provides an example of a prion-like domain that allows an enzyme to gain essential functionality via amyloid-like assembly to control animal development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zelha Nil
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA; Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Rubén Hervás
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Therese Gerbich
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Paulo Leal
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Zulin Yu
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Anita Saraf
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Mihaela Sardiu
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Jeffrey J Lange
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Kexi Yi
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Jay Unruh
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Brian Slaughter
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
| | - Kausik Si
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000E 50(th) Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA; Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.
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Zhang J, Wang J, Ma C, Lu J. Hydroxyapatite Formation Coexists with Amyloid-like Self-Assembly of Human Amelogenin. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:E2946. [PMID: 32331340 PMCID: PMC7216246 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21082946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Revised: 03/28/2020] [Accepted: 04/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Tooth enamel is formed in an extracellular environment. Amelogenin, the major component in the protein matrix of tooth enamel during the developing stage, could assemble into high molecular weight structures, regulating enamel formation. However, the molecular structure of amelogenin protein assembly at the functional state is still elusive. In this work, we found that amelogenin is able to induce calcium phosphate minerals into hydroxyapatite (HAP) structure in vitro at pH 6.0. Assessed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and 31P solid-state NMR (SSNMR) evidence, the formed HAP mimics natural enamel closely. The structure of amelogenin protein assembly coexisting with the HAP was also studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and XRD, indicating the β-amyloid structure of the protein. SSNMR was proven to be an important tool in detecting both the rigid and dynamic components of the protein assembly in the sample, and the core sequence 18EVLTPLKWYQSI29 was identified as the major segment contributing to the β-sheet secondary structure. Our research suggests an amyloid structure may be an important factor in controlling HAP formation at the right pH conditions with the help of other structural components in the protein assembly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Zhang
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; (J.Z.); (J.W.); (C.M.)
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Jian Wang
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; (J.Z.); (J.W.); (C.M.)
| | - Chengwei Ma
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; (J.Z.); (J.W.); (C.M.)
| | - Junxia Lu
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; (J.Z.); (J.W.); (C.M.)
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Chance MR, Farquhar ER, Yang S, Lodowski DT, Kiselar J. Protein Footprinting: Auxiliary Engine to Power the Structural Biology Revolution. J Mol Biol 2020; 432:2973-2984. [PMID: 32088185 PMCID: PMC7245549 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 02/07/2020] [Accepted: 02/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Structural biology is entering an exciting time where many new high-resolution structures of large complexes and membrane proteins are determined regularly. These advances have been driven by over fifteen years of technology advancements, first in macromolecular crystallography, and recently in Cryo-electron microscopy. These structures are allowing detailed questions about functional mechanisms of the structures, and the biology enabled by these structures, to be addressed for the first time. At the same time, mass spectrometry technologies for protein structure analysis, "footprinting" studies, have improved their sensitivity and resolution dramatically and can provide detailed sub-peptide and residue level information for validating structures and interactions or understanding the dynamics of structures in the context of ligand binding or assembly. In this perspective, we review the use of protein footprinting to extend our understanding of macromolecular systems, particularly for systems challenging for analysis by other techniques, such as intrinsically disordered proteins, amyloidogenic proteins, and other proteins/complexes so far recalcitrant to existing methods. We also illustrate how the availability of high-resolution structural information can be a foundation for a suite of hybrid approaches to divine structure-function relationships beyond what individual techniques can deliver.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark R Chance
- Case Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, USA; Case Center for Synchrotron Biosciences, USA; Department of Nutrition, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA.
| | | | - Sichun Yang
- Case Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, USA; Department of Nutrition, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA
| | - David T Lodowski
- Case Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, USA; Department of Nutrition, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA
| | - Janna Kiselar
- Case Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, USA; Department of Nutrition, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA
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Salimian M, Moghadam TT, Ranjbar B. Surface Functionalization of Gold Nanorods Improves Nanostructure Assemblies on Amyloid Fibril Scaffolds. Acta Chim Slov 2020; 67:304-311. [PMID: 33558935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
A hybrid scaffold containing gold nanorods and lysozyme amyloid fibrils has been fabricated, and the effect of surface modification on improving nanostructure assembly on the biological template has been investigated. The nanohybrid system was characterized by monitoring surface plasmon resonance bands, dynamic light scattering spectroscopy, Thioflavin-T assay, and transmission electron microscopy. Surface of gold nanorods (GNRs) was modified with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), and possible difference in assembly of the pristine and modified nanostructures was compared upon interaction with amyloid fibrils. Analysis of transmission electron microscopy showed that changing the surface charge of GNRs with biocompatible polymer improved electrostatic interactions between the nanostructures and amyloid fibril templates. Analysis of cell viability assays also showed that surface functionalization of GNRs remarkably improved biocompatibility of the nanoscaffold. Results of this study encourage utilization of modification strategies to fabricate a new generation of nanoscaffolds with fruitful applications in regenerative medicine.
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Banerjee S. Glyoxal modification mediates conformational alterations in silk fibroin: Induction of fibrillation with amyloidal features. J Biosci 2020; 45:32. [PMID: 32098911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Silkwormsilk protein fibroin is widely exploited to develop novel silk-based biomaterials due to its stable β-sheet structure, providing high crystallinity and tensile strength. The polymorphic behaviour of silk fibroin provides a window to modulate its structural transitions during self-assembly for different functional outcomes. Most studies are therefore mainly focused on formation of well-developed β-sheet structure and self-assembly of silk fibroin which are regulated by many parameters. Glyoxal, a highly reactive α-oxoaldehyde, reacts with different proteins to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs) following Maillard-like reaction. Considering the significance of protein modification by glyoxal-derived AGEs, in the present study the effect of glyoxal (250, 500 and 1000 μM) on the structure of silk fibroin has been investigated. CD and fluorescence studies reveal that higher concentrations of the α-oxoaldehyde induce considerable alterations of secondary and tertiary structure of the protein leading to aggregation following incubation with for 3 weeks. The aggregates exhibit fibrillar morphology with amyloidal nature as evident from SEM, FTIR and XRD experiments. The findings highlight that glycationinduced modification can be a possible approach for modulating the conformation of the silk protein which may be relevant in connection to clinical, biomedical or synthetic biology based applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sauradipta Banerjee
- Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 009, India
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Rostampour Ghareghozloo E, Mahdavimehr M, Meratan AA, Nikfarjam N, Ghasemi A, Katebi B, Nemat-Gorgani M. Role of surface oxygen-containing functional groups of graphene oxide quantum dots on amyloid fibrillation of two model proteins. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0244296. [PMID: 33362209 PMCID: PMC7757872 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There are many reports demonstrating that various derivatives of carbon nanoparticles are effective inhibitors of protein aggregation. As surface structural features of nanoparticles play a key role on modulating amyloid fibrillation process, in the present in vitro study, bovine insulin and hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) were selected as two model proteins to investigate the reducing effect of graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) on their assembly under amyloidogenic conditions. GOQDs were prepared through direct pyrolysis of citric acid, and the reduction step was carried out using ascorbic acid. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis, X-ray photoelectron, and FT-IR spectroscopies, transmission electron and atomic force microscopies, zeta potential measurement, and Nile red fluorescence assay. They showed the tendencies to modulate the assembly of the proteins through different mechanisms. While GOQDs appeared to have the capacity to inhibit fibrillation, the presence of reduced GOQDs (rGOQDs) was found to promote protein assembly via shortening the nucleation phase, as suggested by ThT fluorescence data. Moreover, the structures produced in the presence of GOQDs or rGOQDs were totally nontoxic. We suggest that surface properties of these particles may be part of the differences in their mechanism(s) of action.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mohsen Mahdavimehr
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran
| | - Ali Akbar Meratan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran
- * E-mail: ,
| | - Nasser Nikfarjam
- Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran
| | - Atiyeh Ghasemi
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Bentolhoda Katebi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran
| | - Mohsen Nemat-Gorgani
- Stanford Genome Technology Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
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Abstract
The fuzzy oil drop model suggests that the tertiary conformation of a protein - particularly a globular one - can be likened to a spherical micelle. During the folding process, hydrophilic residues are exposed on the surface, while hydrophobic residues are retained inside the protein. The resulting hydrophobicity distribution can be mathematically modeled as a 3D Gaussian. The fuzzy oil drop model is strikingly effective in explaining the properties of type II antifreeze proteins and fast-folding proteins, as well as a vast majority of autonomous protein domains. This work aims to determine whether similar mechanisms apply to other types of nonbonding interactions. Our analysis indicates that electrostatic and van der Waals forces do not conform to the Gaussian pattern. The study involves a reference protein (titin) which shows a high agreement between the observed distribution of hydrophobicity and the theoretical (Gaussian) distribution, a selection of amyloid structures derived from the Protein Data Bank, as well as transthyretin - a protein known for its susceptibility to amyloid transformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Ptak-Kaczor
- 1Department of Bioinformatics and Telemedicine, Jagiellonian University - Medical College, Kraków, Poland; 2Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Mateusz Banach
- Department of Bioinformatics and Telemedicine, Jagiellonian University - Medical College, Kraków, Poland
| | - Leszek Konieczny
- 3hair of Medical Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University - Medical College, Kraków, Poland
| | - Irena Roterman
- Department of Bioinformatics and Telemedicine, Jagiellonian University - Medical College, Kraków, Poland
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John T, Greene GW, Patil NA, Dealey TJA, Hossain MA, Abel B, Martin LL. Adsorption of Amyloidogenic Peptides to Functionalized Surfaces Is Biased by Charge and Hydrophilicity. Langmuir 2019; 35:14522-14531. [PMID: 31537064 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b02063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Surfaces are abundant in living systems, such as in the form of cellular membranes, and govern many biological processes. In this study, the adsorption of the amyloidogenic model peptides GNNQQNY, NNFGAIL, and VQIVYK as well as the amyloid-forming antimicrobial peptide uperin 3.5 (U3.5) were studied at low concentrations (100 μM) to different surfaces. The technique of a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) was applied as it enables the monitoring of mass binding to sensors at nanogram sensitivity. Gold-coated quartz sensors were used as unmodified gold surfaces or functionalized with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols (terminated as methyl, amino, carboxyl, and hydroxyl) resulting in different adsorption affinities of the peptides. Our objective was to evaluate the underlying role of the nature and feature of interfaces in biological systems which could concentrate peptides and impact or trigger peptide aggregation processes. In overall, the largely hydrophobic peptides adsorbed with preference to hydrophobic or countercharged surfaces. Further, the glycoprotein lubricin (LUB) was tested as an antiadhesive coating. Despite its hydrophilicity, the adsorption of peptides to LUB coated sensors was similar to the adsorption to unmodified gold surfaces, which indicates that some peptides diffused through the LUB layer to reach the underlying gold sensor surface. The LUB protein-antiadhesive is thus more effective as a biomaterial coating against larger biomolecules than small peptides under the conditions used here. This study provides directions toward a better understanding of amyloid peptide adsorption to biologically relevant interfaces, such as cellular membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Torsten John
- School of Chemistry , Monash University , Clayton , Victoria 3800 , Australia
- Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) , Permoserstraße 15 , 04318 Leipzig , Germany
- Wilhelm-Ostwald-Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry , Leipzig University , Linnéstraße 3 , 04103 Leipzig , Germany
| | - George W Greene
- Institute for Frontier Materials , Deakin University , 75 Pigdons Road , Waurn Ponds , Victoria 3216 , Australia
| | - Nitin A Patil
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health , The University of Melbourne , Parkville , Victoria 3010 , Australia
| | - Tiara J A Dealey
- School of Chemistry , Monash University , Clayton , Victoria 3800 , Australia
| | - Mohammed A Hossain
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health , The University of Melbourne , Parkville , Victoria 3010 , Australia
| | - Bernd Abel
- Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) , Permoserstraße 15 , 04318 Leipzig , Germany
- Wilhelm-Ostwald-Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry , Leipzig University , Linnéstraße 3 , 04103 Leipzig , Germany
| | - Lisandra L Martin
- School of Chemistry , Monash University , Clayton , Victoria 3800 , Australia
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