Engineered alpha-synuclein prevents wild type and familial Parkin variant fibril formation

Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Sep 23;335(2):432-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.07.100.

Abstract

Alpha-synuclein is a major component of several pathological lesions diagnostic of specific neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's disease. This study focuses on the non-amyloid beta component of Alzheimer's disease amyloid, a key region for the aggregation and fibril formation of alpha-synuclein. Several mutations were introduced in an attempt to repress beta-strand formation and hydrophobic interaction-based aggregation. Although reducing the hydrophobicity drastically decreased fibril formation, the Val70Thr and Val70Pro mutations resulted in an unstable secondary structure thereby increasing non-structural aggregation, instead of fibril formation. Therefore, the stabilization of non-structural natively unfolded status is important to prevent alpha-synuclein fibril formation. Mixing the Val70Thr/Val71Thr double mutant, which has inherently low potential, with the fibril forming alpha-synucleins, WT and Ala53Thr, greatly reduced their fibril formation and aggregation. This double mutant has great potential for further therapeutic approaches.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Amyloid / chemistry
  • Bone Marrow Cells / cytology
  • Circular Dichroism
  • DNA / chemistry
  • DNA, Complementary / metabolism
  • Gene Library
  • Humans
  • Light
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Mutation
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / chemistry*
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / genetics
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / physiology
  • Parkinson Disease / metabolism
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Proline / chemistry
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Engineering
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Scattering, Radiation
  • Synucleins
  • Time Factors
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / chemistry*
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / genetics
  • Ultraviolet Rays
  • Valine / chemistry
  • alpha-Synuclein

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • DNA, Complementary
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Peptides
  • SNCA protein, human
  • Synucleins
  • alpha-Synuclein
  • DNA
  • Proline
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • parkin protein
  • Valine