Rippled ß-Sheet Formation by an Amyloid-ß Fragment Indicates Expanded Scope of Sequence Space for Enantiomeric ß-Sheet Peptide Coassembly.

In 1953, Pauling and Corey predicted that enantiomeric ß-sheet peptides would coassemble into so-called "rippled" ß-sheets, in which the ß-sheets would consist of alternating l- and d-peptides. To date, this phenomenon has been investigated primarily with amphipathic peptide sequences composed of alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acid residues. Here, we show that enantiomers of a fragment of the amyloid-ß (Aß) peptide that does not follow this sequence pattern, amyloid-ß (16-22), readily coassembles into rippled ß-sheets. Equimolar mixtures of enantiomeric amyloid-ß (16-22) peptides assemble into supramolecular structures that exhibit distinct morphologies from those observed by self-assembly of the single enantiomer pleated ß-sheet fibrils. Formation of rippled ß-sheets composed of alternating l- and d-amyloid-ß (16-22) is confirmed by isotope-edited infrared spectroscopy and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Sedimentation analysis reveals that rippled ß-sheet formation by l- and d-amyloid-ß (16-22) is energetically favorable relative to self-assembly into corresponding pleated ß-sheets. This work illustrates that coassembly of enantiomeric ß-sheet peptides into rippled ß-sheets is not limited to peptides with alternating hydrophobic/hydrophilic sequence patterns, but that a broader range of sequence space is available for the design and preparation of rippled ß-sheet materials.

Balancing hydrophobicity and sequence pattern to influence self-assembly of amphipathic peptides.

Amphipathic peptides with alternating polar and nonpolar amino acid sequences efficiently self-assemble into functional ß-sheet fibrils as long as the nonpolar residues have sufficient hydrophobicity. For example, the Ac-(FKFE)2 -NH2 peptide rapidly self-assembles into ß-sheet bilayer nanoribbons, while Ac-(AKAE)2 -NH2 fails to self-assemble under similar conditions due to the significantly reduced hydrophobicity and ß-sheet propensity of Ala relative to Phe. Herein, we systematically explore the effect of substituting only two of the four Ala residues at various positions in the Ac-(AKAE)2 -NH2 peptide with amino acids of increasing hydrophobicity, ß-sheet potential, and surface area (including Phe, 1-naphthylalanine (1-Nal), 2-naphthylalanine (2-Nal), cyclohexylalanine (Cha), and pentafluorophenylalanine (F5 -Phe)) on the self-assembly propensity of the resulting sequences. It was found that double Phe variants, regardless of the position of substitution, failed to self-assemble under the conditions used in this study. In contrast, all double 1-Nal and 2-Nal variants readily self-assembled, albeit at differing rates depending on the substitution patterns. To determine whether this was due to hydrophobicity or side chain surface area, we also prepared double Cha and F5 -Phe variant peptides (both side chain groups are more hydrophobic than Phe). Each of these variants also underwent effective self-assembly, with the aromatic F5 -Phe peptides doing so with greater efficiency. These findings provide insight into the role of amino acid hydrophobicity and sequence pattern on self-assembly proclivity of amphipathic peptides and on how targeted substitutions of nonpolar residues in these sequences can be exploited to tune the characteristics of the resulting self-assembled materials.

Hybrid Amyloid Quantum Dot Nanoassemblies to Probe Neuroinflammatory Damage.

Various oligomeric species of amyloid-beta have been proposed to play different immunogenic roles in the cellular pathology of Alzheimer's Disease. However, investigating the role of a homogenous single oligomeric species has been difficult due to highly dynamic oligomerization and fibril formation kinetics that convert between many species. Here we report the design and construction of a quantum dot mimetic for larger spherical oligomeric amyloid species as an "endogenously" fluorescent proxy for this cytotoxic species to investigate its role in inducing inflammatory and stress response states in neuronal and glial cell types.

Quantum Dots for Improved Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy.

Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have long established their versatility and utility for the visualization of biological interactions. On the single-particle level, QDs have demonstrated superior photophysical properties compared to organic dye molecules or fluorescent proteins, but it remains an open question as to which of these fundamental characteristics are most significant with respect to the performance of QDs for imaging beyond the diffraction limit. Here, we demonstrate significant enhancement in achievable localization precision in QD-labeled neurons compared to neurons labeled with an organic fluorophore. Additionally, we identify key photophysical parameters of QDs responsible for this enhancement and compare these parameters to reported values for commonly used fluorophores for super-resolution imaging.

Thermodynamic Stability of Polar and Nonpolar Amyloid Fibrils.

Thermodynamic stabilities of amyloid fibrils remain mostly unknown due to experimental challenges. Here, we combine enhanced sampling methods to simulate all-atom models in explicit water in order to study the stability of nonpolar (Aß16-21) and polar (IAPP28-33) fibrils. We find that the nonpolar fibril becomes more stable with increasing temperature, and its stability is dominated by entropy. In contrast, the polar fibril becomes less stable with increasing temperature, while it is stabilized by enthalpy. Our results show that the nature of side chains in the dry core of amyloid fibrils plays a dominant role in accounting for their thermodynamic stability.