Intermolecular alignment in Y145Stop human prion protein amyloid fibrils probed by solid-state NMR spectroscopy

J Am Chem Soc. 2011 Sep 7;133(35):13934-7. doi: 10.1021/ja206469q. Epub 2011 Aug 15.

Abstract

The Y145Stop mutant of human prion protein, huPrP23-144, has been linked to PrP cerebral amyloid angiopathy, an inherited amyloid disease, and also serves as a valuable in vitro model for investigating the molecular basis of amyloid strains. Prior studies of huPrP23-144 amyloid by magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR spectroscopy revealed a compact β-rich amyloid core region near the C-terminus and an unstructured N-terminal domain. Here, with the focus on understanding the higher-order architecture of huPrP23-144 fibrils, we probed the intermolecular alignment of β-strands within the amyloid core using MAS NMR techniques and fibrils formed from equimolar mixtures of (15)N-labeled protein and (13)C-huPrP23-144 prepared with [1,3-(13)C(2)] or [2-(13)C]glycerol. Numerous intermolecular correlations involving backbone atoms observed in 2D (15)N-(13)C spectra unequivocally suggest an overall parallel in-register alignment of the β-sheet core. Additional experiments that report on intermolecular (15)N-(13)CO and (15)N-(13)Cα dipolar couplings yielded an estimated strand spacing that is within ∼10% of the distances of 4.7-4.8 Å typical for parallel β-sheets.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Amyloid / chemistry*
  • Amyloid / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation*
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Prions / chemistry*
  • Prions / genetics*
  • Protein Structure, Secondary

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • Prions