Development of new fusion proteins for visualizing amyloid-β oligomers in vivo

Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 16:6:22712. doi: 10.1038/srep22712.

Abstract

The intracellular accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers critically contributes to disease progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and can be the potential target of AD therapy. Direct observation of molecular dynamics of Aβ oligomers in vivo is key for drug discovery research, however, it has been challenging because Aβ aggregation inhibits the fluorescence from fusion proteins. Here, we developed Aβ1-42-GFP fusion proteins that are oligomerized and visualize their dynamics inside cells even when aggregated. We examined the aggregation states of Aβ-GFP fusion proteins using several methods and confirmed that they did not assemble into fibrils, but instead formed oligomers in vitro and in live cells. By arranging the length of the liker between Aβ and GFP, we generated two fusion proteins with "a long-linker" and "a short-linker", and revealed that the aggregation property of fusion proteins can be evaluated by measuring fluorescence intensities using rat primary culture neurons transfected with Aβ-GFP plasmids and Aβ-GFP transgenic C. elegans. We found that Aβ-GFP fusion proteins induced cell death in COS7 cells. These results suggested that novel Aβ-GFP fusion proteins could be utilized for studying the physiological functions of Aβ oligomers in living cells and animals, and for drug screening by analyzing Aβ toxicity.

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / genetics
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Animals, Genetically Modified / metabolism
  • Apoptosis
  • COS Cells
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / metabolism
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chlorocebus aethiops
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / genetics
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism*
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Microscopy, Electron
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Neurons / cytology
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Peptide Fragments / genetics
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism*
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Plasmids / metabolism
  • Protein Multimerization
  • Rats
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / isolation & purification

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • amyloid beta-protein (1-42)
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins