Ion channel formation by N-terminally truncated Aβ (4-42): relevance for the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Karkisaval AG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8132454 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a pathology characterized by the accumulation in the brain of intracellular and extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates, especially of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 peptides. It is known that N-terminally truncated or modified Aβ forms also exist in AD brains and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and they play a key role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Herein, we developed an antibody-free method based on Solid-Phase Extraction and Electrospray Ionization Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry for the identification and quantitation in human CSF of Aβ isoforms. In human CSF, we could detect and quantify a panel of 19 Aβ isoforms, including N-terminally truncated and pyroglutamate-modified forms, never quantified before in CSF. Among these, we identified novel N-terminally truncated Aβ species: four bound to copper and two phosphorylated forms, which were found to be the most common proteoforms in human CSF along with Aβ1-40, Aβ3-40, and AβpE11-42. We tested the newly developed and validated method in a pilot study on CSF from elderly individuals with subjective memory complaints (SMCs, n = 9), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 18), and AD (n = 15); along with Aβ1-42, five N-terminally truncated forms (Aβ11-40, Aβ3-42, AβpE11-42, AβpE3-40, and Aβ4-40 Cu2+) are altered in AD/MCI. Thus, we demonstrated that N-terminally truncated and pyroglutamate-modified Aβ can be quantified in human CSF, and five of them, along with Aβ1-42, are potential markers of AD progression. The described method could represent a useful tool for patients' stratification and monitoring. Moreover, the newly identified Aβ CSF species might represent new potential therapeutic targets.
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Project description:In Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyloid ?-protein (A?) self-assembles into toxic oligomers. Of the two predominant A? alloforms, A?1-40 and A?1-42, the latter is particularly strongly linked to AD. N-terminally truncated and pyroglutamated A? peptides were recently shown to seed A? aggregation and contribute significantly to A?-mediated toxicity, yet their folding and assembly were not explored computationally. Discrete molecular dynamics approach previously captured in vitro-derived distinct A?1-40 and A?1-42 oligomer size distributions and predicted that the more toxic A?1-42 oligomers had more flexible and solvent-exposed N-termini than A?1-40 oligomers. Here, we examined oligomer formation of A?3-40, A?3-42, A?11-40, and A?11-42 by the discrete molecular dynamics approach. The four N-terminally truncated peptides showed increased oligomerization propensity relative to the full-length peptides, consistent with in vitro findings. Conformations formed by A?3-40/42 had significantly more flexible and solvent-exposed N-termini than A?1-40/42 conformations. In contrast, in A?11-40/42 conformations, the N-termini formed more contacts and were less accessible to the solvent. The compactness of the A?11-40/42 conformations was in part facilitated by Val12. Two single amino acid substitutions that reduced and abolished hydrophobicity at position 12, respectively, resulted in a proportionally increased structural variability. Our results suggest that A?11-40 and A?11-42 oligomers might be less toxic than A?1-40 and A?1-42 oligomers and offer a plausible explanation for the experimentally observed increased toxicity of A?3-40 and A?3-42 and their pyroglutamated forms.
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Project description:Accumulation of amyloid-? peptides is a dominant feature in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease; however, it is not clear how individual amyloid-? species accumulate and affect other neuropathological and clinical features in the disease. Thus, we compared the accumulation of N-terminally truncated amyloid-? and full-length amyloid-?, depending on disease stage as well as brain area, and determined how these amyloid-? species respectively correlate with clinicopathological features of Alzheimer's disease. To this end, the amounts of amyloid-? species and other proteins related to amyloid-? metabolism or Alzheimer's disease were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) or theoretically calculated in 12 brain regions, including neocortical, limbic and subcortical areas from Alzheimer's disease cases (n = 19), neurologically normal elderly without amyloid-? accumulation (normal ageing, n = 13), and neurologically normal elderly with cortical amyloid-? accumulation (pathological ageing, n = 15). We observed that N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 and full-length amyloid-?42 accumulations distributed differently across disease stages and brain areas, while N-terminally truncated amyloid-?40 and full-length amyloid-?40 accumulation showed an almost identical distribution pattern. Cortical N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 accumulation was increased in Alzheimer's disease compared to pathological ageing, whereas cortical full-length amyloid-?42 accumulation was comparable between Alzheimer's disease and pathological ageing. Moreover, N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 were more likely to accumulate more in specific brain areas, especially some limbic areas, while full-length amyloid-?42 tended to accumulate more in several neocortical areas, including frontal cortices. Immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry analysis showed that several N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 species, represented by pyroglutamylated amyloid-?11-42, were enriched in these areas, consistent with ELISA results. N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 accumulation showed significant regional association with BACE1 and neprilysin, but not PSD95 that regionally associated with full-length amyloid-?42 accumulation. Interestingly, accumulations of tau and to a greater extent apolipoprotein E (apoE, encoded by APOE) were more strongly correlated with N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 accumulation than those of other amyloid-? species across brain areas and disease stages. Consistently, immunohistochemical staining and in vitro binding assays showed that apoE co-localized and bound more strongly with pyroglutamylated amyloid-?11-x fibrils than full-length amyloid-? fibrils. Retrospective review of clinical records showed that accumulation of N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 in cortical areas was associated with disease onset, duration and cognitive scores. Collectively, N-terminally truncated amyloid-?42 species have spatiotemporal accumulation patterns distinct from full-length amyloid-?42, likely due to different mechanisms governing their accumulations in the brain. These truncated amyloid-? species could play critical roles in the disease by linking other clinicopathological features of Alzheimer's disease.
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Project description:Increasing evidence has suggested that formation and propagation of misfolded aggregates of 42-residue human amyloid β (Aβ(1-42)), rather than of the more abundant Aβ(1-40), provokes the Alzheimer's disease cascade. However, structural details of misfolded Aβ(1-42) have remained elusive. Here we present the atomic model of an Aβ(1-42) amyloid fibril, from solid-state NMR (ssNMR) data. It displays triple parallel-β-sheet segments that differ from reported structures of Aβ(1-40) fibrils. Remarkably, Aβ(1-40) is incompatible with the triple-β-motif, because seeding with Aβ(1-42) fibrils does not promote conversion of monomeric Aβ(1-40) into fibrils via cross-replication. ssNMR experiments suggest that C-terminal Ala42, absent in Aβ(1-40), forms a salt bridge with Lys28 to create a self-recognition molecular switch that excludes Aβ(1-40). The results provide insight into the Aβ(1-42)-selective self-replicating amyloid-propagation machinery in early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
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