Short hydrophobic loop motifs in BRICHOS domains determine chaperone activity against amorphous protein aggregation but not against amyloid formation.

ATP-independent molecular chaperones are important for maintaining cellular fitness but the molecular determinants for preventing aggregation of partly unfolded protein substrates remain unclear, particularly regarding assembly state and basis for substrate recognition. The BRICHOS domain can perform small heat shock (sHSP)-like chaperone functions to widely different degrees depending on its assembly state and sequence. Here, we observed three hydrophobic sequence motifs in chaperone-active domains, and found that they get surface-exposed when the BRICHOS domain assembles into larger oligomers.

Recombinant Bri3 BRICHOS domain is a molecular chaperone with effect against amyloid formation and non-fibrillar protein aggregation.

Molecular chaperones assist proteins in achieving a functional structure and prevent them from misfolding into aggregates, including disease-associated deposits. The BRICHOS domain from familial dementia associated protein Bri2 (or ITM2B) probably chaperones its specific proprotein region with high β-sheet propensity during biosynthesis. Recently, Bri2 BRICHOS activity was found to extend to other amyloidogenic, fibril forming peptides, in particular, Alzheimer's disease associated amyloid-β peptide, as well as to amorphous aggregate forming proteins.

Rare variants in dynein heavy chain genes in two individuals with situs inversus and developmental dyslexia: a case report.

Background: Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental learning disorder with high heritability. A number of candidate susceptibility genes have been identified, some of which are linked to the function of the cilium, an organelle regulating left-right asymmetry development in the embryo. Furthermore, it has been suggested that disrupted left-right asymmetry of the brain may play a role in neurodevelopmental disorders such as DD.

Augmentation of Bri2 molecular chaperone activity against amyloid-β reduces neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampus in vitro.

Molecular chaperones play important roles in preventing protein misfolding and its potentially harmful consequences. Deterioration of molecular chaperone systems upon ageing are thought to underlie age-related neurodegenerative diseases, and augmenting their activities could have therapeutic potential. The dementia relevant domain BRICHOS from the Bri2 protein shows qualitatively different chaperone activities depending on quaternary structure, and assembly of monomers into high-molecular weight oligomers reduces the ability to prevent neurotoxicity induced by the Alzheimer-associated amyloid-β peptide 1-42 (Aβ42).

Reversible Condensation of Mucins into Nanoparticles.

Mucins are high molar mass glycoproteins that assume an extended conformation and can assemble into mucus hydrogels that protect our mucosal epithelium. In nature, the challenging task of generating a mucus layer, several hundreds of micrometers in thickness, from micrometer-sized cells is elegantly solved by the condensation of mucins inside vesicles and their on-demand release from the cells where they suddenly expand to form the extracellular mucus hydrogel. We aimed to recreate and control the process of compaction for mucins, the first step toward a better understanding of the process and creating biomimetic in vivo delivery strategies of macromolecules.

Granule-stored MUC5B mucins are packed by the non-covalent formation of N-terminal head-to-head tetramers.

Most MUC5B mucin polymers in the upper airways of humans and pigs are produced by submucosal glands. MUC5B forms N-terminal covalent dimers that are further packed into larger assemblies because of low pH and high Ca in the secretory granule of the mucin-producing cell. We purified the recombinant MUC5B N-terminal covalent dimer and used single-particle electron microscopy to study its structure under intracellular conditions.

Bri2 BRICHOS client specificity and chaperone activity are governed by assembly state.

Protein misfolding and aggregation is increasingly being recognized as a cause of disease. In Alzheimer's disease the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) misfolds into neurotoxic oligomers and assembles into amyloid fibrils. The Bri2 protein associated with Familial British and Danish dementias contains a BRICHOS domain, which reduces Aβ fibrillization as well as neurotoxicity in vitro and in a Drosophila model, but also rescues proteins from irreversible non-fibrillar aggregation.

The normal trachea is cleaned by MUC5B mucin bundles from the submucosal glands coated with the MUC5AC mucin.

To understand the mucociliary clearance system, mucins were visualized by light, confocal and electron microscopy, and mucus was stained by Alcian blue and tracked by video microscopy on tracheal explants of newborn piglets. We observed long linear mucus bundles that appeared at the submucosal gland openings and were transported cephalically. The mucus bundles were shown by mass spectrometry and immunostaining to have a core made of MUC5B mucin and were coated with MUC5AC mucin produced by surface goblet cells.

Intestinal MUC2 mucin supramolecular topology by packing and release resting on D3 domain assembly.

MUC2 is the major gel-forming mucin of the colon forming a protective gel barrier organized into an inner stratified and an outer loose layer. The MUC2 N-terminus (D1-D2-D'D3 domains) has a dual function in building a net-like structure by disulfide-bonded trimerization and packing the MUC2 polymer into an N-terminal concatenated polygonal platform with the C-termini extending perpendicularly by pH- and calcium-dependent interactions. We studied the N-terminal D'D3 domain by producing three recombinant variants, with or without Myc tag and GFP (green fluorescent protein), and analyzed these by gel filtration, electron microscopy and single particle image processing.

Bicarbonate and functional CFTR channel are required for proper mucin secretion and link cystic fibrosis with its mucus phenotype.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by a nonfunctional chloride and bicarbonate ion channel (CF transmembrane regulator [CFTR]), but the link to the phenomenon of stagnant mucus is not well understood. Mice lacking functional CFTR (CftrΔ508) have no lung phenotype but show similar ileal problems to humans. We show that the ileal mucosa in CF have a mucus that adhered to the epithelium, was denser, and was less penetrable than that of wild-type mice.

Calcium and pH-dependent packing and release of the gel-forming MUC2 mucin.

MUC2, the major colonic mucin, forms large polymers by N-terminal trimerization and C-terminal dimerization. Although the assembly process for MUC2 is established, it is not known how MUC2 is packed in the regulated secretory granulae of the goblet cell. When the N-terminal VWD1-D2-D'D3 domains (MUC2-N) were expressed in a goblet-like cell line, the protein was stored together with full-length MUC2.

CFTR and tight junctions in cultured bronchial epithelial cells.

Airway epithelial salt and water transport takes place through paracellular and transcellular pathways. This transport depends critically on the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), operating in concert with the paracellular pathway through the tight junctions (TJ). Normal (16HBE14o-), cystic fibrosis (CFBE41o-), and corrected CFBE41o- (CFBE41o-pCep4 overexpressing wtCFTR) airway epithelial cell lines were cultured under isotonic conditions.