The accumulation of protein aggregates as intracellular inclusions interferes with cellular protein homeostasis leading to protein aggregation diseases. Protein aggregation results in the formation of several protein conformers including oligomers and fibrils, where each conformer has its own structural characteristic and proteotoxic potential. The present study explores the effect of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) conformers on the activity and spontaneous refolding of firefly luciferase. Of the different conformers, α-syn monomers delayed the inactivation of luciferase under thermal stress conditions and enhanced the spontaneous refolding of luciferase. In contrast, the α-syn oligomers and fibrils adversely affected luciferase activity and refolding, where the oligomers inhibited spontaneous refolding, whereas a pronounced effect on the inactivation of native luciferase was observed in the case of fibrils. These results indicate that the oligomers and fibrils of α-syn interfere with the refolding of luciferase and promote its misfolding and aggregation. The study reveals the differential propensities of various conformers of a pathologically relevant protein in causing inactivation, structural modifications and misfolding of other proteins, consequently resulting in altered protein homeostasis.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jb/mvac095 | DOI Listing |
Ageing Res Rev
January 2025
Department of Pharmaceutics, NIMS Institute of Pharmacy, NIMS University, Jaipur 303121, Rajasthan, India.
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are debilitating disorders characterized by the progressive and selective loss of function or structure in the brain and spinal cord. Both chronic and acute forms of these diseases are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, as they involve the degeneration of neurons in various brain regions. Misfolding and aggregation of amyloid proteins into oligomer and β-sheet rich fibrils share as common hallmark and lead to neurotoxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcc Chem Res
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
ConspectusProtein higher-order structure (HOS) is key to biological function because the mechanisms of protein machinery are encoded in protein three-dimensional structures. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based protein footprinting is advancing protein structure characterization by mapping solvent-accessible regions of proteins and changes in H-bonding, thereby providing higher order structural information. Footprinting provides insights into protein dynamics, conformational changes, and interactions, and when conducted in a differential way, can readily reveal those regions that undergo conformational change in response to perturbations such as ligand binding, mutation, thermal stress, or aggregation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Neurodegener
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (LMU), Klinikum, Germany.
Background: The prion-like spreading of Tau pathology is the leading cause of disease progression in various tauopathies. A critical step in propagating pathologic Tau in the brain is the transport from the extracellular environment and accumulation inside naïve neurons. Current research indicates that human neurons internalize both the physiological extracellular Tau (eTau) monomers and the pathological eTau aggregates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Institute of Engineering Research, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Stable hollow-type microspheres (MSs) have been fabricated using α-synuclein (αS), an amyloidogenic protein, via freeze-induced protein self-assembly. This assembly process involves three steps: rapid freezing to form spherical protein condensates from αS oligomers, frozen annealing to form a crust on the condensate and freeze-drying to create an interior lumen via the three-dimensional (3D) coffee-stain effect. The crust produced during the frozen-annealing step is a β-sheet-mediated protein structure that is presumed to be created at the quasi-liquid layer of the protein-ice interface and thus contributes to the stability of MSs in aqueous solutions at room temperature without any additional surface stabilization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurobiol Dis
December 2024
Department of Neurology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 13-1, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan. Electronic address:
The accumulation of amyloid β-proteins (Aβ) in the extracellular space, forming insoluble plaques, is a primary pathological process underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among the various Aβ species that appear during Aβ aggregation, Aβ oligomers are considered the most neurotoxic form. However, the precise mechanisms of their molecular functions within the Aβ aggregation cascade have not been clarified so far.
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