High-Yield α-Synuclein Purification and Ionic Strength Modification Pivotal to Seed Amplification Assay Performance and Reproducibility.

Alpha-synuclein seed amplification assays (αSyn-SAAs) have emerged as promising diagnostic tools for Parkinson's disease (PD) by detecting misfolded αSyn and amplifying the signal through cyclic shaking and resting in vitro. Recently, our group and others have shown that multiple biospecimens, including CSF, skin, and submandibular glands (SMGs), can be used to seed the aggregation reaction and robustly distinguish between patients with PD and non-disease controls. The ultrasensitivity of the assay affords the ability to detect minute quantities of αSyn in peripheral tissues, but it also produces various technical challenges of variability. To address the problem of variability, we present a high-yield αSyn protein purification protocol for the efficient production of monomers with a low propensity for self-aggregation. We expressed wild-type αSyn in BL21 Escherichia coli, lysed the cells using osmotic shock, and isolated αSyn using acid precipitation and fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC). Following purification, we optimized the ionic strength of the reaction buffer to distinguish the fluorescence maximum (Fmax) separation between disease and healthy control tissues for enhanced assay performance. Our protein purification protocol yielded high quantities of αSyn (average: 68.7 mg/mL per 1 L of culture) and showed highly precise and robust αSyn-SAA results using brain, skin, and SMGs with inter-lab validation.

Taylor Dispersion-Induced Phase Separation for the Efficient Characterisation of Protein Condensate Formation.

Biomolecular condensates have emerged as important structures in cellular function and disease, and are thought to form through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Thorough and efficient in vitro experiments are therefore needed to elucidate the driving forces of protein LLPS and the possibility to modulate it with drugs. Here we present Taylor dispersion-induced phase separation (TDIPS), a method to robustly measure condensation phenomena using a commercially available microfluidic platform. It uses only nanoliters of sample, does not require extrinsic fluorescent labels, and is straightforward to implement. We demonstrate TDIPS by screening the phase behaviour of two proteins that form biomolecular condensates in vivo, PGL-3 and Ddx4. Uniquely accessible to this method, we find an unexpected re-entrant behaviour at very low ionic strength, where LLPS is inhibited for both proteins. TDIPS can also probe the reversibility of assemblies, which was shown for both α-synuclein and for lysozyme, relevant for health and biotechnology, respectively. Finally, we highlight how effective inhibition concentrations and partitioning of LLPS-modifying compounds can be screened highly efficiently.

Phosphorylation of endogenous α-synuclein induced by extracellular seeds initiates at the pre-synaptic region and spreads to the cell body.

Accumulation of phosphorylated α-synuclein aggregates has been implicated in several diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and is thought to spread in a prion-like manner. Elucidating the mechanisms of prion-like transmission of α-synuclein is important for the development of therapies for these diseases, but little is known about the details. Here, we injected α-synuclein fibrils into the brains of wild-type mice and examined the early phase of the induction of phosphorylated α-synuclein accumulation. We found that phosphorylated α-synuclein appeared within a few days after the intracerebral injection. It was observed initially in presynaptic regions and subsequently extended its localization to axons and cell bodies.　These results suggest that extracellular α-synuclein fibrils are taken up into the presynaptic region and seed-dependently convert the endogenous normal α-synuclein that is abundant there to an abnormal phosphorylated form, which is then transported through the axon to the cell body.

Lipid Peroxidation Products HNE and ONE Promote and Stabilize Alpha-Synuclein Oligomers by Chemical Modifications.

The aggregation of α-synuclein (αSN) and increased oxidative stress leading to lipid peroxidation are pathological characteristics of Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we report that aggregation of αSN in the presence of lipid peroxidation products 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) and 4-oxo-2-nonenal (ONE) increases the stability and the yield of αSN oligomers (αSO). Further, we show that ONE is more efficient than HNE at inducing αSO. In addition, we demonstrate that the two αSO differ in both size and shape. ONE-αSO are smaller in size than HNE-αSO, except when they are formed at a high molar excess of aldehyde. In both monomeric and oligomeric αSN, His50 is the main target of HNE modification, and HNE-induced oligomerization is severely retarded in the mutant His50Ala αSN. In contrast, ONE-induced aggregation of His50Ala αSN occurs readily, demonstrating the different pathways for inducing αSN aggregation by HNE and ONE. Our results show different morphologies of the HNE-treated and ONE-treated αSO and different roles of His50 in their modification of αSN, but we also observe structural similarities between these αSO and the non-treated αSO, e.g., flexible C-terminus, a folded core composed of the N-terminal and NAC region. Furthermore, HNE-αSO show a similar deuterium uptake as a previously characterized oligomer formed by non-treated αSO, suggesting that the backbone conformational dynamics of their folded cores resemble one another.

Biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.

Biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases are needed to improve the diagnostic workup in the clinic but also to facilitate the development and monitoring of effective disease-modifying therapies. Positron emission tomography methods detecting amyloid-ß and tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease have been increasingly used to improve the design of clinical trials and observational studies. In recent years, easily accessible and cost-effective blood-based biomarkers detecting the same Alzheimer's disease pathologies have been developed, which might revolutionize the diagnostic workup of Alzheimer's disease globally. Relevant biomarkers for α-synuclein pathology in Parkinson's disease are also emerging, as well as blood-based markers of general neurodegeneration and glial activation. This review presents an overview of the latest advances in the field of biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. Future directions are discussed regarding implementation of novel biomarkers in clinical practice and trials.

Physicochemical characterization of the G51D mutation of α-synuclein that is responsible for its severe cytotoxicity.

Fibril formation and aggregation of α-synuclein are important for the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease. In familial Parkinson's disease, the G51D mutation of α-synuclein causes severe symptoms and rapid progression. α-Synuclein, an intrinsically disordered protein, was shown to adopt an α-helical tetrameric state that resists fibrillation and aggregation. Here, we isolated the stable dimeric state of recombinant wild-type (WT) α-synuclein and G51D α-synuclein protein. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, we determined that the α-synuclein dimer and monomer structures were unfolded. The WT α-synuclein dimer was more resistant to fibril formation than the monomer. However, the fibril formation rate of the G51D α-synuclein dimer was similar to that of the G51D α-synuclein monomer. The fibril morphology and properties of the G51D α-synuclein monomer were different from those of the WT α-synuclein monomer and dimer and G51D α-synuclein dimer. Additionally, G51D α-synuclein monomer fibrils were more cytotoxic than other fibrils. Our findings indicate that the structural differences between G51D α-synuclein monomer fibrils and other fibrils are critically responsible for its severe neurotoxicity in familial Parkinson's disease.

Transmissible α-synuclein seeding activity in brain and stomach of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Cerebral deposition of abnormally aggregated α-synuclein (αSyn) is a neuropathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). PD-associated αSyn (αSynPD) aggregates can act as proteinaceous nuclei ("seeds") able of self-templated propagation. Since this is strikingly reminiscent to properties of proteinaceous infectious particles (prions), lessons learned from prion diseases suggest to test whether transferred αSynPD can propagate and induce neurological impairments or disease in a new host. Two studies that addressed this question provided divergent results. Intracerebral (i.c.) injection of Lewy body extracts from PD patients caused cerebral αSyn pathology, as well as nigrostriatal neurodegeneration, of wild-type mice and macaques, with the mice also showing motor impairments (Recasens et al. 2014, Ann Neurol 75:351-362). In contrast, i.c. transmission of homogenates from PD brains did not stimulate, after "> 360" days post-injection (dpi), pathological αSyn conversion or clinical symptoms in transgenic TgM83+/- mice hemizygously expressing mutated (A53T) human αSyn (Prusiner et al. 2015, PNAS 112:E5308-E5317). To advance the assessment of possible αSynPD hazards by providing further data, we examined neuropathological and clinical effects upon i.c. transmission of brain, stomach wall and muscle tissue as well as blood from PD patients in TgM83+/- mice up to 612 dpi. This revealed a subtle, yet distinctive stimulation of localized αSyn aggregation in the somatodendritic compartment and dystrophic neurites of individual or focally clustered cerebral neurons after challenge with brain and stomach wall homogenates. No such effect was observed with transmitted blood or homogenized muscle tissue. The detected stimulation of αSyn aggregation was not accompanied by apparent motor impairments or overt neurological disease in TgM83+/- mice. Our study substantiated that transmitted αSynPD seeds, including those from the stomach wall, are able to propagate in new mammalian hosts. The consequences of such propagation and potential safeguards need to be further investigated.

Conformational Dynamics of α-Synuclein during the Interaction with Phospholipid Nanodiscs by Millisecond Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry.

Both normal and pathological functions of α-synuclein (αSN), an abundant protein in the central and peripheral nervous system, have been linked to its interaction with membrane lipid bilayers. The ability to characterize structural transitions of αSN upon membrane complexation will clarify molecular mechanisms associated with αSN-linked pathologies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple systems atrophy, and other synucleinopathies. In this work, time-resolved electrospray ionization hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (TRESI-HDX-MS) was employed to acquire a detailed picture of αSN's conformational transitions as it undergoes complexation with nanodisc membrane mimics with different headgroup charges (zwitterionic DMPC and negative POPG). Using this approach, αSN interactions with DMPC nanodiscs were shown to be rapid exchanging and to have little impact on the αSN conformational ensemble. Interactions with nanodiscs containing lipids known to promote amyloidogenesis (e.g., POPG), on the other hand, were observed to induce substantial and specific changes in the αSN conformational ensemble. Ultimately, we identify a region corresponding residues 19-28 and 45-57 of the αSN sequence that is uniquely impacted by interactions with "amyloidogenic" lipid membranes, supporting the existing "broken-helix" model for α-synuclein/membrane interactions, but do not detect a "helical extension" that is also thought to play a role in αSN aggregation.

Detection of pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates in human iPSC-derived neurons and tissue.

The accumulation of proteins into insoluble aggregates is a common feature of several neurodegenerative diseases. Aggregated α-synuclein is a major component of Lewy bodies that pathologically define Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we present methods for the detection of pathogenic conformations of α-synuclein in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) patient-derived neuron models and brain tissue. These methods can be applied to studies of PD pathogenesis and the discovery of novel therapeutics that restore physiological α-synuclein. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Cuddy et al. (2019) and Zunke et al. (2018).

Interplay between tau and α-synuclein liquid-liquid phase separation.

In Parkinson's disease with dementia, up to 50% of patients develop a high number of tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles. Tau-based pathologies may thus act synergistically with the α-synuclein pathology to confer a worse prognosis. A better understanding of the relationship between the two distinct pathologies is therefore required. Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins has recently been shown to be important for protein aggregation involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, whereas tau phase separation has been linked to Alzheimer's disease. We therefore investigated the interaction of α-synuclein with tau and its consequences on tau LLPS. We find α-synuclein to have a low propensity for both, self-coacervation and RNA-mediated LLPS at pH 7.4. However, full-length but not carboxy-terminally truncated α-synuclein efficiently partitions into tau/RNA droplets. We further demonstrate that Cdk2-phosphorylation promotes the concentration of tau into RNA-induced droplets, but at the same time decreases the amount of α-synuclein inside the droplets. NMR spectroscopy reveals that the interaction of the carboxy-terminal domain of α-synuclein with the proline-rich region P2 of tau is required for the recruitment of α-synuclein into tau droplets. The combined data suggest that the concentration of α-synuclein into tau-associated condensates can contribute to synergistic aSyn/tau pathologies.

Temperature is a key determinant of alpha- and beta-synuclein membrane interactions in neurons.

Aggregation of α-synuclein (αS) leads to the hallmark neuropathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) and related synucleinopathies. αS has been described to exist in both cytosolic and membrane-associated forms, the relative abundance of which has remained unsettled. To study αS under the most relevant conditions by a quantitative method, we cultured and matured rodent primary cortical neurons for >17 days and determined αS cytosol:membrane distribution via centrifugation-free sequential extractions based on the weak ionic detergent digitonin. We noticed that at lower temperatures (4 °C or room temperature), αS was largely membrane-associated. At 37 °C, however, αS solubility was markedly increased. In contrast, the extraction of control proteins (GAPDH, cytosolic; calnexin, membrane) was not affected by temperature. When we compared the relative distribution of the synuclein homologs αS and ß-synuclein (ßS) under various conditions that differed in temperature and digitonin concentration (200-1200 µg/ml), we consistently found αS to be more membrane-associated than ßS. Both proteins, however, exhibited temperature-dependent membrane binding. Under the most relevant conditions (37 °C and 800 µg/ml digitonin, i.e., the lowest digitonin concentration that extracted cytosolic GAPDH to near completion), cytosolic distribution was 49.8% ± 9.0% for αS and 63.6% ± 6.6% for ßS. PD-linked αS A30P was found to be largely cytosolic, confirming previous studies that had used different methods. Our work highlights the dynamic nature of cellular synuclein behavior and has important implications for protein-biochemical and cell-biological studies of αS proteostasis, such as testing the effects of genetic and pharmacological manipulations.

Implementing Complementary Approaches to Shape the Mechanism of α-Synuclein Oligomerization as a Model of Amyloid Aggregation.

The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibers is linked to more than forty still incurable cellular and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy, Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes, among others. The process of amyloid formation is a main feature of cell degeneration and disease pathogenesis. Despite being methodologically challenging, a complete understanding of the molecular mechanism of aggregation, especially in the early stages, is essential to find new biological targets for innovative therapies. Here, we reviewed selected examples on α-syn showing how complementary approaches, which employ different biophysical techniques and models, can better deal with a comprehensive study of amyloid aggregation. In addition to the monomer aggregation and conformational transition hypothesis, we reported new emerging theories regarding the self-aggregation of α-syn, such as the alpha-helix rich tetramer hypothesis, whose destabilization induce monomer aggregation; and the liquid-liquid phase separation hypothesis, which considers a phase separation of α-syn into liquid droplets as a primary event towards the evolution to aggregates. The final aim of this review is to show how multimodal methodologies provide a complete portrait of α-syn oligomerization and can be successfully extended to other protein aggregation diseases.

Dammarane triterpenes targeting α-synuclein: biological activity and evaluation of binding sites by molecular docking.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects adult people whose treatment is palliative. Thus, we decided to test three dammarane triterpenes 1, 1a, 1b, and we determined that 1 and 1a inhibit ß-aggregation through thioflavine T rather than 1b. Since compound 1 was most active, we determined the interaction between α-synuclein and 1 at 50 µM (Kd) through microscale thermophoresis. Also, we observed differences in height and diameter of aggregates, and α-synuclein remains unfolded in the presence of 1. Also, aggregates treated with 1 do not provoke neurites' retraction in N2a cells previously induced by retinoic acid. Finally, we studied the potential sites of interaction between 1 with α-synuclein fibrils using molecular modelling. Docking experiments suggest that 1 preferably interact with the site 2 of α-synuclein through hydrogen bonds with residues Y39 and T44.

Purification of Recombinant α-synuclein: A Comparison of Commonly Used Protocols.

The initial state of the intrinsically disordered protein α-synuclein (aSyn), e.g., the presence of oligomers and degradation products, or the presence of contaminants and adducts can greatly influence the aggregation kinetics and toxicity of the protein. Here, we compare four commonly used protocols for the isolation of recombinant aSyn from Escherichia coli: boiling, acid precipitation, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and periplasmic lysis followed by ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. We identified, using nondenaturing electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, that aSyn isolated by acid precipitation and periplasmic lysis was the purest and yielded the highest percentage of monomeric protein, 100% and 96.5%, respectively. We then show that aSyn purified by the different protocols exerts different metabolic stresses in cells, with the more multimeric/degraded and least pure samples leading to a larger increase in cell vitality. However, the percentage of monomeric protein and the purity of the samples did not correlate with aSyn aggregation propensity. This study highlights the importance of characterizing monomeric aSyn after purification, as the choice of purification method can significantly influence the outcome of a subsequent study.

In-Cell NMR of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in Mammalian Cells.

In-cell NMR enables structural insights at atomic resolution of proteins in their natural environment. To date, very few methods have been developed to study proteins by in-cell NMR in mammalian systems. Here we describe a detailed protocol to conduct in-cell NMR on the intrinsically disordered protein of alpha-Synuclein (αSyn) in mammalian cells. This chapter includes a simplified expression and purification protocol of recombinant αSyn and its delivery into mammalian cells. The chapter also describes how to assess the cell leakage that might occur to the cells, the setup of the instrument, and how to perform basic analyses with the obtained NMR data.

Anti-amyloidogenic effect of artemin on α-synuclein.

α-Synuclein fibrillation is now regarded as a major pathogenic process in Parkinson's disease and its proteinaceous deposits are also detected in other neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease. Therefore anti-amyloidegenic compounds may delay or prevent the progression of synucleinopathies disease. Molecular chaperones are group of proteins which mediate correct folding of proteins by preventing unsuitable interactions which may lead to aggregation. The objective of this study was to investigate the anti-amyloidogenic effect of molecular chaperone artemin on α-synuclein. As the concentration of artemin was increased up to 4 µg/ml, a decrease in fibril formation of α-synuclein was observed using thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence and congo red (CR) assay. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images also demonstrated a reduction in fibrils in the presence of artemin. The secondary structure of α-synuclein was similar to its native form prior to fibrillation when incubated with artemin. A cell-based assay has shown that artemin inhibits α-synuclein aggregation and reduce cytotoxicity, apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Our results revealed that artemin has efficient chaperon activity for preventing α-synuclein fibril formation and toxicity.

Expression and purification of amyloid ß-protein, tau, and α-synuclein in Escherichia coli: a review.

Misfolding and accumulation of amyloidogenic proteins into various forms of aggregated intermediates and insoluble amyloid fibrils is associated with more than 50 human diseases. Large amounts of high-quality amyloid proteins are required for better probing of their aggregation and neurotoxicity. Due to their intrinsic hydrophobicity, it is a challenge to obtain amyloid proteins with high yield and purity, and they have attracted the attention of researchers from all over the world. The rapid development of bioengineering technology provides technical support for obtaining large amounts of recombinant amyloidogenic proteins. This review discusses the available expression and purification methods for three amyloid proteins including amyloid ß-protein, tau, and α-synuclein in microbial expression systems, especially Escherichia coli, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Importantly, these protocols can also be referred to for the expression and purification of other hydrophobic proteins.

PET Radiopharmaceuticals for Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease Diagnosis, the Current and Future Landscape.

Ironically, population aging which is considered a public health success has been accompanied by a myriad of new health challenges, which include neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs), the incidence of which increases proportionally to age. Among them, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are the most common, with the misfolding and the aggregation of proteins being common and causal in the pathogenesis of both diseases. AD is characterized by the presence of hyperphosphorylated τ protein (tau), which is the main component of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and senile plaques the main component of which is ß-amyloid peptide aggregates (Aß). The neuropathological hallmark of PD is α-synuclein aggregates (α-syn), which are present as insoluble fibrils, the primary structural component of Lewy body (LB) and neurites (LN). An increasing number of non-invasive PET examinations have been used for AD, to monitor the pathological progress (hallmarks) of disease. Notwithstanding, still the need for the development of novel detection tools for other proteinopathies still remains. This review, although not exhaustively, looks at the timeline of the development of existing tracers used in the imaging of Aß and important moments that led to the development of these tracers.

Disentangling aggregation-prone proteins: a new method for isolating α-synuclein species: An Editorial Highlight for "A simple, versatile and robust centrifugation-based filtration protocol for the isolation and quantification of α-synuclein monomers, oligomers and fibrils: Towards improving experimental reproducibility in α-synuclein research" on page 103.

Protein aggregation plays a central role in numerous neurodegenerative diseases. The key proteins in these diseases are of significant importance, but their investigation can be challenging due to unique properties of protein misfolding and oligomerization. Alpha-synuclein protein (α-Syn) is the predominant component of Lewy Bodies in Parkinson's disease (PD) and is a member of this class of proteins. Many α-Syn studies are limited by the inability to separate various monomeric, oligomeric, and fibrillar forms of the protein from heterogeneous mixtures. This Editorial Highlight summarizes the impact of a study published in the current issue of Journal of Neurochemistry, in which Lashuel and colleagues developed a simple, rapid centrifugation- and filter-based method for separating, isolating, and quantifying different forms of α-Syn. The researchers used electron microscopy, SDS-PAGE, circular dichroism, and protein assays to carefully validate the method and quantitate α-Syn yields and loss. The publication of this new method will not only aid in future studies of α-Syn, but will likely extend to other proteins that underlie a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

A simple, versatile and robust centrifugation-based filtration protocol for the isolation and quantification of α-synuclein monomers, oligomers and fibrils: Towards improving experimental reproducibility in α-synuclein research.

Increasing evidence suggests that the process of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) aggregation from monomers into amyloid fibrils and Lewy bodies, via oligomeric intermediates plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of different synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). However, the nature of the toxic species and the mechanisms by which they contribute to neurotoxicity and disease progression remain elusive. Over the past two decades, significant efforts and resources have been invested in studies aimed at identifying and targeting toxic species along the pathway of α-syn fibrillization. Although this approach has helped to advance the field and provide insights into the biological properties and toxicity of different α-syn species, many of the fundamental questions regarding the role of α-syn aggregation in PD remain unanswered, and no therapeutic compounds targeting α-syn aggregates have passed clinical trials. Several factors have contributed to this slow progress, including the complexity of the aggregation pathways and the heterogeneity and dynamic nature of α-syn aggregates. In the majority of experiment, the α-syn samples used contain mixtures of α-syn species that exist in equilibrium and their ratio changes upon modifying experimental conditions. The failure to quantitatively account for the distribution of different α-syn species in different studies has contributed not only to experimental irreproducibility but also to misinterpretation of results and misdirection of valuable resources. Towards addressing these challenges and improving experimental reproducibility in Parkinson's research, we describe here a simple centrifugation-based filtration protocol for the isolation, quantification and assessment of the distribution of α-syn monomers, oligomers and fibrils, in heterogeneous α-syn samples of increasing complexity. The protocol is simple, does not require any special instrumentation and can be performed rapidly on multiple samples using small volumes. Here, we present and discuss several examples that illustrate the applications of this protocol and how it could contribute to improving the reproducibility of experiments aimed at elucidating the structural basis of α-syn aggregation, seeding activity, toxicity and pathology spreading. This protocol is applicable, with slight modifications, to other amyloid-forming proteins.