In many neurodegenerative diseases, formation of protein fibrillar aggregates has been observed as a major pathological change. Neurofibrillary tangles, mainly composed of fibrils formed by the microtubule-associated protein; Tau, are a hallmark of a group of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Tau belongs to the class of natively unfolded proteins and partially folds into an ordered β-structure during aggregation. Polyanionic cofactors such as heparin are commonly used as inducer of Tau aggregation in vitro. The role of heparin in nucleation and elongation steps during Tau fibril formation is not fully understood. In the current study, aggregation kinetics as well as structure of Tau amyloid fibrils, by using the 1N4R isoform, have been reproducibly determined in the presence of heparin and the shorter molecule; enoxaparin. The kinetic studies demonstrated that heparin (not enoxaparin) efficiently accelerates Tau amyloid formation and revealed, mechanistically, that the molecular weight of the inducer is important in accelerating amyloidogenesis. The kinetic parameter values of Tau amyloid aggregation, especially, the amyloid aggregation extent, were relatively different in the presence of heparin and enoxaparin, at various stoichiometries of the inducers binding. Also, based on the results, obtained from CD, FTIR, AFM and XRD studies, it may be suggested that the inducer length plays a critical role mainly in the nucleation process, so that it determines that oligomers lie on or off the pathway of Tau fibrillization. The biochemical results herein suggest that the chemical environment of the extracellular matrix as well as localization of distinct glycosaminoglycans may influence deposition behavior of Tau amyloidosis.
Keywords: 1N4R Tau isoform; Amyloid aggregation; Enoxaparin; Heparin.
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