| 11. |
- Dear, Alexander J., et al.
(författare)
-
Identification of on- And off-pathway oligomers in amyloid fibril formation
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Chemical Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2041-6520 .- 2041-6539. ; 11:24, s. 6236-6247
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The misfolding and aberrant aggregation of proteins into fibrillar structures is a key factor in some of the most prevalent human diseases, including diabetes and dementia. Low molecular weight oligomers are thought to be a central factor in the pathology of these diseases, as well as critical intermediates in the fibril formation process, and as such have received much recent attention. Moreover, on-pathway oligomeric intermediates are potential targets for therapeutic strategies aimed at interrupting the fibril formation process. However, a consistent framework for distinguishing on-pathway from off-pathway oligomers has hitherto been lacking and, in particular, no consensus definition of on- and off-pathway oligomers is available. In this paper, we argue that a non-binary definition of oligomers' contribution to fibril-forming pathways may be more informative and we suggest a quantitative framework, in which each oligomeric species is assigned a value between 0 and 1 describing its relative contribution to the formation of fibrils. First, we clarify the distinction between oligomers and fibrils, and then we use the formalism of reaction networks to develop a general definition for on-pathway oligomers, that yields meaningful classifications in the context of amyloid formation. By applying these concepts to Monte Carlo simulations of a minimal aggregating system, and by revisiting several previous studies of amyloid oligomers in light of our new framework, we demonstrate how to perform these classifications in practice. For each oligomeric species we obtain the degree to which it is on-pathway, highlighting the most effective pharmaceutical targets for the inhibition of amyloid fibril formation. This journal is
|
|
| 12. |
- Dear, Alexander J., et al.
(författare)
-
Kinetic diversity of amyloid oligomers
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424. ; 117:22
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The spontaneous assembly of proteins into amyloid fibrils is a phenomenon central to many increasingly common and currently incurable human disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Oligomeric species form transiently during this process and not only act as essential intermediates in the assembly of new filaments but also represent major pathogenic agents in these diseases. While amyloid fibrils possess a common, defining set of physicochemical features, oligomers, by contrast, appear much more diverse, and their commonalities and differences have hitherto remained largely unexplored. Here, we use the framework of chemical kinetics to investigate their dynamical properties. By fitting experimental data for several unrelated amyloidogenic systems to newly derived mechanistic models, we find that oligomers present with a remarkably wide range of kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities but that they possess two properties that are generic: they are overwhelmingly nonfibrillar, and they predominantly dissociate back to monomers rather than maturing into fibrillar species. These discoveries change our understanding of the relationship between amyloid oligomers and amyloid fibrils and have important implications for the nature of their cellular toxicity.
|
|
| 13. |
- Dear, Alexander J., et al.
(författare)
-
The catalytic nature of protein aggregation
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-9606 .- 1089-7690. ; 152:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The formation of amyloid fibrils from soluble peptide is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Characterization of the microscopic reaction processes that underlie these phenomena have yielded insights into the progression of such diseases and may inform rational approaches for the design of drugs to halt them. Experimental evidence suggests that most of these reaction processes are intrinsically catalytic in nature and may display enzymelike saturation effects under conditions typical of biological systems, yet a unified modeling framework accounting for these saturation effects is still lacking. In this paper, we therefore present a universal kinetic model for biofilament formation in which every fundamental process in the reaction network can be catalytic. The single closed-form expression derived is capable of describing with high accuracy a wide range of mechanisms of biofilament formation and providing the first integrated rate law of a system in which multiple reaction processes are saturated. Moreover, its unprecedented mathematical simplicity permits us to very clearly interpret the effects of increasing saturation on the overall kinetics. The effectiveness of the model is illustrated by fitting it to the data of in vitro Aβ40 aggregation. Remarkably, we find that primary nucleation becomes saturated, demonstrating that it must be heterogeneous, occurring at interfaces and not in solution.
|
|
| 14. |
- Flagmeier, Patrick, et al.
(författare)
-
Direct measurement of lipid membrane disruption connects kinetics and toxicity of Aβ42 aggregation
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1545-9993 .- 1545-9985. ; 27:10, s. 886-891
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The formation of amyloid deposits in human tissues is a defining feature of more than 50 medical disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. Strong genetic and histological evidence links these conditions to the process of protein aggregation, yet it has remained challenging to identify a definitive connection between aggregation and pathogenicity. Using time-resolved fluorescence microscopy of individual synthetic vesicles, we show for the Aβ42 peptide implicated in Alzheimer’s disease that the disruption of lipid bilayers correlates linearly with the time course of the levels of transient oligomers generated through secondary nucleation. These findings indicate a specific role of oligomers generated through the catalytic action of fibrillar species during the protein aggregation process in driving deleterious biological function and establish a direct causative connection between amyloid formation and its pathological effects.
|
|
| 15. |
- Habchi, Johnny, et al.
(författare)
-
Cholesterol catalyses Aβ42 aggregation through a heterogeneous nucleation pathway in the presence of lipid membranes
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Nature Chemistry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1755-4330 .- 1755-4349. ; 10:6, s. 673-683
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the aberrant aggregation of the amyloid-β peptide. Although increasing evidence implicates cholesterol in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, the detailed mechanistic link between this lipid molecule and the disease process remains to be fully established. To address this problem, we adopt a kinetics-based strategy that reveals a specific catalytic role of cholesterol in the aggregation of Aβ42 (the 42-residue form of the amyloid-β peptide). More specifically, we demonstrate that lipid membranes containing cholesterol promote Aβ42 aggregation by enhancing its primary nucleation rate by up to 20-fold through a heterogeneous nucleation pathway. We further show that this process occurs as a result of cooperativity in the interaction of multiple cholesterol molecules with Aβ42. These results identify a specific microscopic pathway by which cholesterol dramatically enhances the onset of Aβ42 aggregation, thereby helping rationalize the link between Alzheimer’s disease and the impairment of cholesterol homeostasis.
|
|
| 16. |
- Herling, Therese W., et al.
(författare)
-
A Microfluidic Platform for Real-Time Detection and Quantification of Protein-Ligand Interactions
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Biophysical Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3495 .- 1542-0086. ; 110:9, s. 1957-1966
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The key steps in cellular signaling and regulatory pathways rely on reversible noncovalent protein-ligand binding, yet the equilibrium parameters for such events remain challenging to characterize and quantify in solution. Here, we demonstrate a microfluidic platform for the detection of protein-ligand interactions with an assay time on the second timescale and without the requirement for immobilization or the presence of a highly viscous matrix. Using this approach, we obtain absolute values for the electrophoretic mobilities characterizing solvated proteins and demonstrate quantitative comparison of results obtained under different solution conditions. We apply this strategy to characterize the interaction between calmodulin and creatine kinase, which we identify as a novel calmodulin target. Moreover, we explore the differential calcium ion dependence of calmodulin ligand-binding affinities, a system at the focal point of calcium-mediated cellular signaling pathways. We further explore the effect of calmodulin on creatine kinase activity and show that it is increased by the interaction between the two proteins. These findings demonstrate the potential of quantitative microfluidic techniques to characterize binding equilibria between biomolecules under native solution conditions.
|
|
| 17. |
- Michaels, Thomas C.T., et al.
(författare)
-
Dynamics of oligomer populations formed during the aggregation of Alzheimer’s Aβ42 peptide
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Nature Chemistry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1755-4330 .- 1755-4349. ; 12:5, s. 445-451
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Oligomeric species populated during the aggregation of the Aβ42 peptide have been identified as potent cytotoxins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, but the fundamental molecular pathways that control their dynamics have yet to be elucidated. By developing a general approach that combines theory, experiment and simulation, we reveal, in molecular detail, the mechanisms of Aβ42 oligomer dynamics during amyloid fibril formation. Even though all mature amyloid fibrils must originate as oligomers, we found that most Aβ42 oligomers dissociate into their monomeric precursors without forming new fibrils. Only a minority of oligomers converts into fibrillar structures. Moreover, the heterogeneous ensemble of oligomeric species interconverts on timescales comparable to those of aggregation. Our results identify fundamentally new steps that could be targeted by therapeutic interventions designed to combat protein misfolding diseases. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
|
|
| 18. |
- Saar, Kadi L., et al.
(författare)
-
On-chip label-free protein analysis with downstream electrodes for direct removal of electrolysis products
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Lab on a Chip. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1473-0197 .- 1473-0189. ; 18:1, s. 162-170
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to apply highly controlled electric fields within microfluidic devices is valuable as a basis for preparative and analytical processes. A challenge encountered in the context of such approaches in conductive media, including aqueous buffers, is the generation of electrolysis products at the electrode/liquid interface which can lead to contamination, perturb fluid flows and generally interfere with the measurement process. Here, we address this challenge by designing a single layer microfluidic device architecture where the electric potential is applied outside and downstream of the microfluidic device while the field is propagated back to the chip via the use of a co-flowing highly conductive electrolyte solution that forms a stable interface at the separation region of the device. The co-flowing electrolyte ensures that all the generated electrolysis products, including Joule heat and gaseous products, are flowed away from the chip without coming into contact with the analytes while the single layer fabrication process where all the structures are defined lithographically allows producing the devices in a simple yet highly reproducible manner. We demonstrate that by allowing stable and effective application of electric fields in excess of 100 V cm-1, the described platform provides the basis for rapid separation of heterogeneous mixtures of proteins and protein complexes directly in their native buffers as well as for the simultaneous quantification of their charge states. We illustrate this by probing the interactions in a mixture of an amyloid forming protein, amyloid-β, and a molecular chaperone, Brichos, known to inhibit the process of amyloid formation. The availability of a platform for applying stable electric fields and its compatibility with single-layer soft-lithography processes opens up the possibility of separating and analysing a wide range of molecules on chip, including those with similar electrophoretic mobilities.
|
|
| 19. |
- Weiffert, Tanja, et al.
(författare)
-
Increased Secondary Nucleation Underlies Accelerated Aggregation of the Four-Residue N-Terminally Truncated Aβ42 Species Aβ5-42
- 2019
-
Ingår i: ACS Chemical Neuroscience. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7193.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aggregation of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide into plaques is believed to play a crucial role in Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid plaques consist of fibrils of full length Aβ peptides as well as N-terminally truncated species. β-Site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme (BACE1) cleaves amyloid precursor protein in the first step in Aβ peptide production and is an attractive therapeutic target to limit Aβ generation. Inhibition of BACE1, however, induces a unique pattern of Aβ peptides with increased levels of N-terminally truncated Aβ peptides starting at position 5 (Aβ5-X), indicating that these peptides are generated through a BACE1-independent pathway. Here we elucidate the aggregation mechanism of Aβ5-42 and its influence on full-length Aβ42. We find that, compared to Aβ42, Aβ5-42 is more aggregation prone and displays enhanced nucleation rates. Aβ5-42 oligomers cause nonspecific membrane disruption to similar extent as Aβ42 but appear at earlier time points in the aggregation reaction. Noteworthy, this implies similar toxicity of Aβ42 and Aβ5-42 and the toxic species are generated faster by Aβ5-42. The increased rate of secondary nucleation on the surface of existing fibrils originates from a higher affinity of Aβ5-42 monomers for fibrils, as compared to Aβ42: an effect that may be related to the reduced net charge of Aβ5-42. Moreover, Aβ5-42 and Aβ42 peptides coaggregate into heteromolecular fibrils and either species can elongate existing Aβ42 or Aβ5-42 fibrils but Aβ42 fibrils are more catalytic than Aβ5-42 fibrils. Our findings highlight the importance of the N-terminus for surface-catalyzed nucleation and thus the production of toxic oligomers.
|
|
| 20. |
- Yates, Emma V., et al.
(författare)
-
Latent analysis of unmodified biomolecules and their complexes in solution with attomole detection sensitivity
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nature Chemistry. - 1755-4330. ; 7:10, s. 802-809
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study of biomolecular interactions is central to an understanding of function, malfunction and therapeutic modulation of biological systems, yet often involves a compromise between sensitivity and accuracy. Many conventional analytical steps and the procedures required to facilitate sensitive detection, such as the incorporation of chemical labels, are prone to perturb the complexes under observation. Here we present a 'latent' analysis approach that uses chemical and microfluidic tools to reveal, through highly sensitive detection of a labelled system, the behaviour of the physiologically relevant unlabelled system. We implement this strategy in a native microfluidic diffusional sizing platform, allowing us to achieve detection sensitivity at the attomole level, determine the hydrodynamic radii of biomolecules that vary by over three orders of magnitude in molecular weight, and study heterogeneous mixtures. We illustrate these key advantages by characterizing a complex of an antibody domain in the solution phase and under physiologically relevant conditions.
|
|
