MOAG-4 promotes the aggregation of α-synuclein by competing with self-protective electrostatic interactions.

Aberrant protein aggregation underlies a variety of age-related neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Little is known, however, about the molecular mechanisms that modulate the aggregation process in the cellular environment. Recently, MOAG-4/SERF has been identified as a class of evolutionarily conserved proteins that positively regulates aggregate formation. Here, by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we examine the mechanism of action of MOAG-4 by characterizing its interaction with α-synuclein (α-Syn). NMR chemical shift perturbations demonstrate that a positively charged segment of MOAG-4 forms a transiently populated α-helix that interacts with the negatively charged C terminus of α-Syn. This process interferes with the intramolecular interactions between the N- and C-terminal regions of α-Syn, resulting in the protein populating less compact forms and aggregating more readily. These results provide a compelling example of the complex competition between molecular and cellular factors that protect against protein aggregation and those that promote it.

The membrane-binding bacterial toxin long direct repeat D inhibits protein translation.

Bacterial plasmids and chromosomes widely contain toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci, which are implicated in stress response, growth regulation and even tolerance to antibiotics and environmental stress. Type I TA systems consist of a stable toxin-expressing mRNA, which is counteracted by an unstable RNA antitoxin. The Long Direct Repeat (LDR-) D locus, a type I TA system of Escherichia Coli (E. coli) K12, encodes a 35 amino acid toxic peptide, LdrD. Despite being characterized as a bacterial toxin, causing rapid killing and nucleoid condensation, little was known about its function and its mechanism of toxicity. Here, we show that LdrD specifically interacts with ribosomes which potentially blocks translation. Indeed, in vitro translation of LdrD-coding mRNA greatly reduces translation efficiency. The structure of LdrD in a hydrophobic environment, similar to the one found in the interior of ribosomes was determined by NMR spectroscopy in 100% trifluoroethanol solution. A single compact α-helix was found which would fit nicely into the ribosomal exit tunnel. Therefore, we conclude that rather than destroying bacterial membranes, LdrD exerts its toxic activity by inhibiting protein synthesis through binding to the ribosomes.

The neurotransmitter serotonin interrupts α-synuclein amyloid maturation.

Indolic derivatives can affect fibril growth of amyloid forming proteins. The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) is of particular interest, as it is an endogenous molecule with a possible link to neuropsychiatric symptoms of Parkinson disease. A key pathomolecular mechanism of Parkinson disease is the misfolding and aggregation of the intrinsically unstructured protein α-synuclein. We performed a biophysical study to investigate an influence between these two molecules. In an isolated in vitro system, 5-HT interfered with α-synuclein amyloid fiber maturation, resulting in the formation of partially structured, SDS-resistant intermediate aggregates. The C-terminal region of α-synuclein was essential for this interaction, which was driven mainly by electrostatic forces. 5-HT did not bind directly to monomeric α-synuclein molecules and we propose a model where 5-HT interacts with early intermediates of α-synuclein amyloidogenesis, which disfavors their further conversion into amyloid fibrils.

The molecular chaperone Hsp90 modulates intermediate steps of amyloid assembly of the Parkinson-related protein alpha-synuclein.

Alpha-synuclein is an intrinsically unstructured protein that binds to membranes, forms fibrils, and is involved in neurodegeneration. We used a reconstituted in vitro system to show that the molecular chaperone Hsp90 influenced alpha-synuclein vesicle binding and amyloid fibril formation, two processes that are tightly coupled to alpha-synuclein folding. Binding of Hsp90 to monomeric alpha-synuclein occurred in the low micromolar range, involving regions of alpha-synuclein that are critical for vesicle binding and amyloidogenesis. As a consequence, both processes were affected. In the absence of ATP, the accumulation of non-amyloid alpha-synuclein oligomers prevailed over fibril formation, whereas ATP favored fibril growth. This suggests that Hsp90 modulates the assembly of alpha-synuclein in an ATP-dependent manner. We propose that Hsp90 affects these folding processes by restricting conformational fluctuations of alpha-synuclein.

Structural Fuzziness of the RNA-Organizing Protein SERF Determines a Toxic Gain-of-interaction.

The mechanisms by which protein complexes convert from functional to pathogenic are the subject of intensive research. Here, we report how functionally unfavorable protein interactions can be induced by structural fuzziness, i.e., by persisting conformational disorder in protein complexes. We show that extreme disorder in the bound state transforms the intrinsically disordered protein SERF1a from an RNA-organizing factor into a pathogenic enhancer of alpha-synuclein (aSyn) amyloid toxicity. We demonstrate that SERF1a promotes the incorporation of RNA into nucleoli and liquid-like artificial RNA-organelles by retaining an unusually high degree of conformational disorder in the RNA-bound state. However, this type of structural fuzziness also determines an undifferentiated interaction with aSyn. RNA and aSyn both bind to one identical, positively charged site of SERF1a by an analogous electrostatic binding mode, with similar binding affinities, and without any observable disorder-to-order transition. The absence of primary or secondary structure discriminants results in SERF1a being unable to select between nucleic acid and amyloidogenic protein, leading the pro-amyloid aSyn:SERF1a interaction to prevail in the cytosol under conditions of cellular stress. We suggest that fuzzy disorder in SERF1a complexes accounts for an adverse gain-of-interaction which favors toxic binding to aSyn at the expense of nontoxic RNA binding, thereby leading to a functionally distorted and pathogenic process. Thus, structural fuzziness constitutes a direct link between extreme conformational flexibility, amyloid aggregation, and the malfunctioning of RNA-associated cellular processes, three signatures of neurodegenerative proteinopathies.

Increased Aggregation Tendency of Alpha-Synuclein in a Fully Disordered Protein Complex.

The recent discovery of biologically active fully disordered, so called random fuzzy protein-protein interactions leads to the question of how the high flexibility of these protein complexes correlates to aggregation and pathologic misfolding. We identify the structural mechanism by which a random fuzzy protein complex composed of the intrinsically disordered proteins alpha-Synuclein and SERF1a is able to potentiate cytotoxic aggregation. A structural model derived from an integrated NMR/SAXS analysis of the reconstituted aSyn:SERF1a complex enabled us to observe the partial deprotection of one precise aSyn amyloid nucleation element in the fully unstructured ensemble. This minimal exposure was sufficient to increase the amyloidogenic tendency of SERF1a-bound aSyn. Our findings provide a structural explanation of the previously observed pro-amyloid activity of SERF1a. They further demonstrate that random fuzziness can trigger a structurally organized disease-associated reaction such as amyloid polymerization.

Coimmunoprecipitation and proteomic analyses.

Defining protein-protein interaction networks is a major goal of proteomics. Here, we present a protocol for coimmunoprecipitation, a technique suitable for the isolation of whole protein complexes in vivo and their subsequent identification by either immunoblotting or mass spectrometric sequencing combined to database search.

A proteomic snapshot of the human heat shock protein 90 interactome.

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone which modulates several signalling pathways within a cell. By applying co-immunoprecipitation with endogeneous Hsp90, we were able to identify 39 novel protein interaction partners of this chaperone in human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293). Interestingly, levels of DNA-activated protein kinase catalytic subunit, an Hsp90 interaction partner found in this study, were found to be sensitive to Hsp90 inhibitor treatment only in HeLa cells but not in HEK293 cells referring to the tumorgenicity of this chaperone.

Oncogenic mutations reduce the stability of SRC kinase.

The oncogenic potential of the viral tyrosine kinase v-Src is due to its constitutive activity. Unlike the highly homologous cellular c-Src kinase, a C-terminal deletion of the regulatory tail and numerous point mutations make the viral kinase uncontrollable. To determine the basis of these differences, we analysed the structure and stability of v-Src and c-Src in vitro. We show that the stability of v-Src against unfolding and irreversible aggregation is significantly lower than that of c-Src. Furthermore, in v-Src hydrophobic residues are more exposed already in the native state. In consequence, v-Src was found to be inactive close to physiological temperatures. We thus suggest that the ensemble of mutations that transform c-Src into the oncogenic variant cause a concomitant destabilisation of the kinase.

The yin and yang of amyloid aggregation.

Intra- and extra-cellular amyloid protein fibers are traditionally coupled to a series of devastating and incurable neurodegenerative disorders. Since the discovery of physiologically useful amyloids, our attention has been shifting from pure pathology to function, as amyloid aggregation seems to constitute a basis for the functional and dynamic assembly of biological structures. The following article summarizes how the cell profits from such an unconventional high-risk aggregation at the rim of physiologic utility and pathologic catastrophe.

Legal but lethal: functional protein aggregation at the verge of toxicity.

Many neurodegenerative disorders are linked to irreversible protein aggregation, a process that usually comes along with toxicity and serious cellular damage. However, it is emerging that protein aggregation can also serve for physiological purposes, as impressively shown for prions. While the aggregation of this protein family was initially considered exclusively toxic in mammalians organisms, it is now almost clear that many other proteins adopt prion-like attributes to rationally polymerize into higher order complexes with organized physiologic roles. This implies that cells can tolerate at least in some measure the accumulation of inherently dangerous protein aggregates for functional profit. This review summarizes currently known strategies that living organisms adopt to preserve beneficial aggregation, and to prevent the catastrophic accumulation of toxic aggregates that frequently accompany neurodegeneration.

SERF protein is a direct modifier of amyloid fiber assembly.

The inherent cytotoxicity of aberrantly folded protein aggregates contributes substantially to the pathogenesis of amyloid diseases. It was recently shown that a class of evolutionary conserved proteins, called MOAG-4/SERF, profoundly alter amyloid toxicity via an autonomous but yet unexplained mode. We show that the biological function of human SERF1a originates from its atypical ability to specifically distinguish between amyloid and nonamyloid aggregation. This inherently unstructured protein directly affected the aggregation kinetics of a broad range of amyloidogenic proteins in vitro, while being inactive against nonamyloid aggregation. A representative biophysical analysis of the SERF1a:α-synuclein (aSyn) complex revealed that the amyloid-promoting activity resulted from an early and transient interaction, which was sufficient to provoke a massive increase of soluble aSyn amyloid nucleation templates. Therefore, the autonomous amyloid-modifying activity of SERF1a observed in living organisms relies on a direct and dedicated manipulation of the early stages in the amyloid aggregation pathway.

Influence of phosphocholine alkyl chain length on peptide-micelle interactions and micellar size and shape.

The interaction with biological membranes is of functional importance for many peptides and proteins. Structural studies on such membrane-bound biomacromolecules are often carried out in solutions containing small membrane-mimetic assemblies of detergent molecules. To investigate the influence of the hydrophobic chain length on the structure, diffusional and dynamical behavior of a peptide bound to micelles, we studied the binding of three peptides to n-phosphocholines with n ranging from 8 to 16. The peptides studied are the 15 residue antimicrobial peptide CM15, the 25-residue transmembrane helix 7 of yeast V-ATPase (TM7), and the 35-residue bacterial toxin LdrD. To keep the dimension of the peptide-membrane-mimetic assembly small, micelles are typically used when studying membrane-bound peptides and proteins, for example, by solution NMR spectroscopy. Since they are readily available in deuterated form most often sodium-dodecylsulfate (SDS) and dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) are used as the micelle-forming detergent. Using NMR, CD, and SAXS, we found that all phosphocholines studied form spherical micelles in the presence and absence of small bound peptides and the diameters of the micelles are basically unchanged upon peptide binding. The size of the peptide relative to the micelle determines to what extent the secondary structure can form. For small peptides (up to approximately 25 residues) the use of shorter chain phosphocholines is recommended for solution NMR studies due to the favorable spectral quality and since they are as well-structured as in DPC. In contrast, larger peptides are better structured in micelles formed by detergents with chain lengths longer than DPC.

A proteomic approach towards the Hsp90-dependent ubiquitinylated proteome.

Since many Hsp90 client proteins are key players in tumour pathways, the ubiquitylation and subsequent degradation of Hsp90-substrates as a consequence of pharmacologically inhibiting Hsp90 represents an innovative approach for cancer therapy. We therefore identified Hsp90-binding proteins which accumulated as ubiquityl-tagged aggregates in the detergent insoluble fraction of HeLa cells as a consequence of simultaneously inhibiting Hsp90 and the proteasome. 2-DE followed by nanoLC-MS/MS of trypsinised protein spots provided the Hsp90-dependent ubiquitylated proteome which was finally annotated and functionally classified. The overall picture thus obtained emphasised the well-established role of Hsp90 in stabilising proteins involved in gene transcription and signal transduction. It also provided a novel Hsp90-related link to metabolic pathways as the inhibition of Hsp90 caused the ubiquitylation of a significant amount of metabolic enzymes. These findings serve to support cumulating indications which attribute Hsp90 to diverse stabilising functions beyond signal transduction and gene transcription.

Unfolding and double-stranded DNA binding of the cold shock protein homologue Cla h 8 from Cladosporium herbarum.

The cloning, purification, and biophysical characterization of the first eukaryotic cold shock protein homologue, Cla h 8, expressed as single functional polypeptide is reported here. It was discovered as a minor allergen of the mold Cladosporium herbarum by phage display using a library selectively enriched for IgE-binding proteins. Based on the sequence homology of Cla h 8 with bacterial cold shock proteins (CSPs), a homology-based computer model of the allergen was computed indicating an all-beta structure of Cla h 8. This major structural feature was confirmed by CD spectroscopy. Despite the structural similarities with bacterial CSPs, the DNA-binding and unfolding behavior of Cla h 8 exhibited unique and previously undescribed characteristics. High affinities of Cla h 8 for single-stranded DNA as well as for double-stranded DNA corresponding to the human Y-box were detected. The affinity for double-stranded DNA increased significantly with decreasing temperature, which was paralleled by an increase in the beta sheet content of the protein. Temperature-dependent fluorescence anisotropy and far-UV CD measurements revealed different unfolding transitions at 28 and at 35.7 degrees C, respectively, indicating a multistate transition, which is uncommon for CSPs. The enhanced affinity for DNA at low temperatures together with the low unfolding transition refer to the functional significance of Cla h 8 at reduced temperatures.