Quantifying Oligomer Populations in Real Time during Protein Aggregation Using Single-Molecule Mass Photometry.

Protein aggregation is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases. The early stages of the aggregation cascade are crucial because small oligomers are thought to be key neurotoxic species, but they are difficult to study because they feature heterogeneous mixtures of transient states. We show how the populations of different oligomers can be tracked as they evolve over time during aggregation using single-molecule mass photometry to measure individually the masses of the oligomers present in solution.

Conformational distortion in a fibril-forming oligomer arrests alpha-Synuclein fibrillation and minimizes its toxic effects.

The fibrillation pathway of alpha-Synuclein, the causative protein of Parkinson's disease, encompasses transient, heterogeneous oligomeric forms whose structural understanding and link to toxicity are not yet understood. We report that the addition of the physiologically-available small molecule heme at a sub-stoichiometric ratio to either monomeric or aggregated α-Syn, targets a His50 residue critical for fibril-formation and stabilizes the structurally-heterogeneous populations of aggregates into a minimally-toxic oligomeric state. Cryo-EM 3D reconstruction revealed a 'mace'-shaped structure of this monodisperse population of oligomers, which is comparable to a solid-state NMR Greek key-like motif (where the core residues are arranged in parallel in-register sheets with a Greek key topology at the C terminus) that forms the fundamental unit/kernel of protofilaments.

Studies of cytochrome c-551 unfolding using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and other biophysical techniques.

In this paper, we have studied the equilibrium unfolding transitions of cytochrome c from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (cytc551), a small bacterial protein. Similar to eukaryotic cytochrome c, cytc551 folds sequentially, although significant differences exist in the order of folding units (foldons). There are two regions of cytc551 (N-terminal helix with residue number 3 to 10 and the loop 2 region containing residues 34 to 45), in which no foldon unit could be assigned.

The Non-native Helical Intermediate State May Accumulate at Low pH in the Folding and Aggregation Landscape of the Intestinal Fatty Acid Binding Protein.

There has been widespread interest in studying early intermediate states and their roles in protein folding. The interest in intermediate states has been further emphasized in the recent literature because of their implications for protein aggregation. Unfortunately, direct kinetic characterization of intermediates has been difficult because of the limited time resolutions offered by the kinetic techniques and the heterogeneity of the folding and aggregation landscape.

Molecular Crowding Affects the Conformational Fluctuations, Peroxidase Activity, and Folding Landscape of Yeast Cytochrome c.

To understand how a protein folds and behaves inside living cells, the effects of synthetic crowding media on protein folding, function, stability, and association have been studied in detail. Because the effect of excluded volume is more prominent in an extended state than in the native protein, a majority of these studies have been conducted in the unfolded state of different model proteins. Here, we have used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and other biophysical methods to investigate the effect of crowding agents Ficoll70 and Dextran70 on the nativelike state of cytochrome c from yeast.

Subtle Change in the Charge Distribution of Surface Residues May Affect the Secondary Functions of Cytochrome c.

Although the primary function of cytochrome c (cyt c) is electron transfer, the protein caries out an additional secondary function involving its interaction with membrane cardiolipin (CDL), its peroxidase activity, and the initiation of apoptosis. Whereas the primary function of cyt c is essentially conserved, its secondary function varies depending on the source of the protein. We report here a detailed experimental and computational study, which aims to understand, at the molecular level, the difference in the secondary functions of cyt c obtained from horse heart (mammalian) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast).

A small molecule chemical chaperone optimizes its unfolded state contraction and denaturant like properties.

Protein aggregation is believed to occur through the formation of misfolded conformations. It is expected that, in order to minimize aggregation, an effective small molecule chaperone would destabilize these intermediates. To study the mechanism of a chemical chaperone, we have designed a series of mutant proteins in which a tryptophan residue experiences different local environments and solvent exposures.