Formation of distinct prion protein amyloid fibrils under identical experimental conditions

Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 12;10(1):4572. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61663-2.

Abstract

Protein aggregation into amyloid fibrils is linked to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A better understanding of the way these aggregates form is vital for the development of drugs. A large detriment to amyloid research is the ability of amyloidogenic proteins to spontaneously aggregate into multiple structurally distinct fibrils (strains) with different stability and seeding properties. In this work we show that prion proteins are capable of forming more than one type of fibril under the exact same conditions by assessing their Thioflavin T (ThT) binding ability, morphology, secondary structure, stability and seeding potential.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid / chemistry
  • Amyloid / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Benzothiazoles / metabolism*
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Models, Molecular
  • Prion Proteins / chemistry*
  • Prion Proteins / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Stability
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • Benzothiazoles
  • Prion Proteins
  • Prnp protein, mouse
  • thioflavin T