Complexation of NAC-Derived Peptide Ligands with the C-Terminus of α-Synuclein Accelerates Its Aggregation

Biochemistry. 2018 Feb 6;57(5):791-804. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b01090. Epub 2018 Jan 22.

Abstract

Aggregation of α-synuclein (α-Syn) into neurotoxic oligomers and amyloid fibrils is suggested to be the pathogenic mechanism for Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent studies have indicated that oligomeric species of α-Syn are more cytotoxic than their mature fibrillar counterparts, which are responsible for dopaminergic neuronal cell death in PD. Therefore, the effective therapeutic strategies for tackling aggregation-associated diseases would be either to prevent aggregation or to modulate the aggregation process to minimize the formation of toxic oligomers during aggregation. In this work, we showed that arginine-substituted α-Syn ligands, based on the most aggregation-prone sequence of α-Syn, accelerate the protein aggregation in a concentration-dependent manner. To elucidate the mechanism by which Arg-substituted peptides could modulate α-Syn aggregation kinetics, we performed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies, and all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The SPR analysis showed a high binding potency of these peptides with α-Syn but one that was nonspecific in nature. The two-dimensional NMR studies suggest that a large stretch within the C-terminus of α-Syn displays a chemical shift perturbation upon interacting with Arg-substituted peptides, indicating C-terminal residues of α-Syn might be responsible for this class of peptide binding. This is further supported by MD simulation studies in which the Arg-substituted peptide showed the strongest interaction with the C-terminus of α-Syn. Overall, our results suggest that the binding of Arg-substituted ligands to the highly acidic C-terminus of α-Syn leads to reduced charge density and flexibility, resulting in accelerated aggregation kinetics. This may be a potentially useful strategy while designing peptides, which act as α-Syn aggregation modulators.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Substitution
  • Amyloid / chemistry*
  • Amyloid / toxicity
  • Arginine / chemistry*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Drug Design
  • Humans
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Ligands
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Neuroblastoma / pathology
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Peptide Fragments / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry
  • Peptide Fragments / toxicity
  • Protein Aggregates / drug effects*
  • Protein Aggregation, Pathological / prevention & control*
  • Protein Domains
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance
  • alpha-Synuclein / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • alpha-Synuclein / chemistry
  • alpha-Synuclein / toxicity

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • Ligands
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Protein Aggregates
  • alpha-Synuclein
  • alpha-synuclein (71-82), human
  • Arginine