Atomistic Insights into the Inhibitory Mechanism of Tyrosine Phosphorylation against the Aggregation of Human Tau Fragment PHF6

J Phys Chem B. 2023 Jan 12;127(1):335-345. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c07568. Epub 2023 Jan 3.

Abstract

Abnormal aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau into intracellular fibrillary inclusions is characterized as the hallmark of tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The hexapeptide 306VQIVYK311 (PHF6) of R3 plays an important role in the aggregation of tau. Recent experimental studies reported that phosphorylation of residue tyrosine 310 (Y310) could decrease the propensity of PHF6 to form fibrils and inhibit tau aggregation. However, the underlying inhibitory mechanism is not well understood. In this work, we systematically investigated the influences of phosphorylation on the conformational ensembles and oligomerization dynamics of PHF6 by performing extensive all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our replica exchange MD simulations demonstrate that Y310 phosphorylation could effectively suppress the formation of β-structure and shift PHF6 oligomers toward coil-rich aggregates. The interaction analyses show that hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions among PHF6 peptides, as well as Y310-Y310 π-π stacking and I308-Y310 CH-π interactions, are weakened by phosphorylation. Additional microsecond MD simulations show that Y310 phosphorylation could inhibit the oligomerization of PHF6 by preventing the formation of large β-sheet oligomers and multi-layer β-sheet aggregates. This study provides mechanistic insights into the phosphorylation-inhibited tau aggregation, which may be helpful for the in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis of tauopathies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease* / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Phosphorylation
  • Protein Conformation, beta-Strand
  • Repressor Proteins / metabolism
  • tau Proteins* / chemistry

Substances

  • tau Proteins
  • Peptides
  • PHF6 protein, human
  • Repressor Proteins