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Conformational differences between two amyloid ? oligomers of similar size and dissimilar toxicity.

ABSTRACT: Several protein conformational disorders (Parkinson and prion diseases) are linked to aberrant folding of proteins into prefibrillar oligomers and amyloid fibrils. Although prefibrillar oligomers are more toxic than their fibrillar counterparts, it is difficult to decouple the origin of their dissimilar toxicity because oligomers and fibrils differ both in terms of structure and size. Here we report the characterization of two oligomers of the 42-residue amyloid ? (A?42) peptide associated with Alzheimer disease that possess similar size and dissimilar toxicity. We find that A?42 spontaneously forms prefibrillar oligomers at A? concentrations below 30 ?m in the absence of agitation, whereas higher A? concentrations lead to rapid formation of fibrils. Interestingly, A? prefibrillar oligomers do not convert into fibrils under quiescent assembly conditions but instead convert into a second type of oligomer with size and morphology similar to those of A? prefibrillar oligomers. Strikingly, this alternative A? oligomer is non-toxic to mammalian cells relative to A? monomer. We find that two hydrophobic peptide segments within A? (residues 16-22 and 30-42) are more solvent-exposed in the more toxic A? oligomer. The less toxic oligomer is devoid of ?-sheet structure, insoluble, and non-immunoreactive with oligomer- and fibril-specific antibodies. Moreover, the less toxic oligomer is incapable of disrupting lipid bilayers, in contrast to its more toxic oligomeric counterpart. Our results suggest that the ability of non-fibrillar A? oligomers to interact with and disrupt cellular membranes is linked to the degree of solvent exposure of their central and C-terminal hydrophobic peptide segments.

SUBMITTER: Ladiwala AR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3397903 | biostudies-other | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Conformational differences between two amyloid β oligomers of similar size and dissimilar toxicity.

Ladiwala Ali Reza A AR Litt Jeffrey J Kane Ravi S RS Aucoin Darryl S DS Smith Steven O SO Ranjan Swarnim S Davis Judianne J Van Nostrand William E WE Tessier Peter M PM

The Journal of biological chemistry 20120430 29

Several protein conformational disorders (Parkinson and prion diseases) are linked to aberrant folding of proteins into prefibrillar oligomers and amyloid fibrils. Although prefibrillar oligomers are more toxic than their fibrillar counterparts, it is difficult to decouple the origin of their dissimilar toxicity because oligomers and fibrils differ both in terms of structure and size. Here we report the characterization of two oligomers of the 42-residue amyloid β (Aβ42) peptide associated with ...[more]

PMID: 22547072

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Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the pathological aggregation of the amyloid-? peptide (A?). Monomeric soluble A? can switch from helicoidal to ?-sheet conformation, promoting its assembly into oligomers and subsequently to amyloid fibrils. Oligomers are highly toxic to neurons and have been reported to induce synaptic transmission impairments. The progression from oligomers to fibrils forming senile plaques is currently considered a protective mechanism to avoid the presence of the highly toxic oligomers. Protein nitration is a frequent post-translational modification under AD nitrative stress conditions. A? can be nitrated at tyrosine 10 (Y10) by peroxynitrite. Based on our analysis of ThT binding, Western blot and electron and atomic force microscopy, we report that A? nitration stabilizes soluble, highly toxic oligomers and impairs the formation of fibrils. We propose a mechanism by which fibril elongation is interrupted upon Y10 nitration: Nitration disrupts fibril-forming folds by preventing H14-mediated bridging, as shown with an A? analog containing a single residue (H to E) replacement that mimics the behavior of nitrated A? related to fibril formation and neuronal toxicity. The pathophysiological role of our findings in AD was highlighted by the study of these nitrated oligomers on mouse hippocampal neurons, where an increased NMDAR-dependent toxicity of nitrated A? oligomers was observed. Our results show that A? nitrotyrosination is a post-translational modification that increases A? synaptotoxicity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:We report that nitration (i.e., the irreversible addition of a nitro group) of the Alzheimer-related peptide amyloid-? (A?) favors the stabilization of highly toxic oligomers and inhibits the formation of A? fibrils. The nitrated A? oligomers are more toxic to neurons due to increased cytosolic calcium levels throughout their action on NMDA receptors. Sustained elevated calcium levels trigger excitotoxicity, a characteristic event in Alzheimer's disease.

Project description:It is often assumed that in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), two proteins with similar sequences will also have similar structures. Accordingly, it has proved useful to develop subsets of the PDB from which "redundant" structures have been removed, based on a sequence-based criterion for similarity. Similarly, when predicting protein structure using homology modeling, if a template structure for modeling a target sequence is selected by sequence alone, this implicitly assumes that all sequence-similar templates are equivalent. Here, we show that this assumption is often not correct and that standard approaches to create subsets of the PDB can lead to the loss of structurally and functionally important information. We have carried out sequence-based structural superpositions and geometry-based structural alignments of a large number of protein pairs to determine the extent to which sequence similarity ensures structural similarity. We find many examples where two proteins that are similar in sequence have structures that differ significantly from one another. The source of the structural differences usually has a functional basis. The number of such proteins pairs that are identified and the magnitude of the dissimilarity depend on the approach that is used to calculate the differences; in particular sequence-based structure superpositioning will identify a larger number of structurally dissimilar pairs than geometry-based structural alignments. When two sequences can be aligned in a statistically meaningful way, sequence-based structural superpositioning provides a meaningful measure of structural differences. This approach and geometry-based structure alignments reveal somewhat different information and one or the other might be preferable in a given application. Our results suggest that in some cases, notably homology modeling, the common use of nonredundant datasets, culled from the PDB based on sequence, may mask important structural and functional information. We have established a data base of sequence-similar, structurally dissimilar protein pairs that will help address this problem (http://luna.bioc.columbia.edu/rachel/seqsimstrdiff.htm).

Dataset Information

Conformational differences between two amyloid ? oligomers of similar size and dissimilar toxicity.

Publications

Conformational differences between two amyloid β oligomers of similar size and dissimilar toxicity.

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