Congenital Cataract-Causing Mutation G129C in γC-Crystallin Promotes the Accumulation of Two Distinct Unfolding Intermediates That Form Highly Toxic Aggregates.

Cataract is a lens opacification disease prevalent worldwide. Cataract-causing mutations in crystallins generally lead to the formation of light-scattering particles in the lens. However, it remains unclear for the detailed structural and pathological mechanisms of most mutations. In this study, we showed that the G129C mutation in γC-crystallin, which is associated with autosomal dominant congenital nuclear cataract, perturbed the unfolding process by promoting the accumulation of two distinct aggregation-prone intermediates under mild denaturing conditions. The abnormally accumulated intermediates escaped from the chaperone-like function of αA-crystallin during refolding. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the mutation altered domain pairing geometry and allowed the penetration of extra solvent molecules into the domain binding interface, thereby weakening domain binding energy. Under mild denaturation conditions, the increased domain movements may facilitate the formation of non-native oligomers via domain swapping, which further assembled into amyloid-like fibrils. The intermediate that appeared at 1.6M guanidine hydrochloride was more compact and less aggregatory than the one populated at 0.9 M guanidine hydrochloride, which was caused by the increased solvation of acidic residues in the ion-pairing network via the competitive binding of guanidinium ions. More importantly, both the amyloid-like fibrils preformed in vitro and intracellular aggresomes formed by exogenously overexpressed mutant proteins significantly inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell death. The combined data from spectroscopic, structural and cellular studies strongly suggest that both the formation of light-scattering aggregates and the toxic effects of the aggregates may contribute to the onset and development of cataract.