Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics

PDF

Selected Works

Amyloid

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Macroglobulin And Haptoglobin Suppress Amyloid Formation By Interacting With Prefibrillar Protein Species, Justin J. Yerbury, Janet R. Kumita, Sarah Meehan, Christopher M. Dobson, Mark R. Wilson May 2013

Macroglobulin And Haptoglobin Suppress Amyloid Formation By Interacting With Prefibrillar Protein Species, Justin J. Yerbury, Janet R. Kumita, Sarah Meehan, Christopher M. Dobson, Mark R. Wilson

Mark R Wilson

α2-Macroglobulin (α2M) and haptoglobin (Hp) are both abundant secreted glycoproteins that are best known for their protease trapping and hemoglobin binding activities, respectively. Like the small heat shock proteins, both these glycoproteins have in common the ability to protect a range of proteins from stress-induced amorphous aggregation and have been described as extracellular chaperones. Using an array of biophysical techniques, this study establishes that in vitro at substoichiometric levels and under physiological conditions α2M and Hp both inhibit the formation of amyloid fibrils from a range of proteins. We also provide evidence that both α2M and Hp interact with prefibrillar …


Potential Roles Of Abundant Extracellular Chaperones In The Control Of Amyloid Formation And Toxicity, Mark R. Wilson, Justin J. Yerbury, Stephen Poon May 2013

Potential Roles Of Abundant Extracellular Chaperones In The Control Of Amyloid Formation And Toxicity, Mark R. Wilson, Justin J. Yerbury, Stephen Poon

Mark R Wilson

The in vivo formation of fibrillar proteinaceous deposits called amyloid is associated with more than 40 serious human diseases, collectively referred to as protein deposition diseases. In many cases the amyloid deposits are extracellular and are found associated with newly identified abundant extracellular chaperones (ECs). Evidence is presented suggesting an important regulatory role for ECs in amyloid formation and disposal in the body. A model is presented which proposes that, under normal conditions, ECs stabilize extracellular misfolded proteins by binding to them, and then guide them to specific cell receptors for uptake and subsequent degradation. Thus ECs and their receptors …


The Two-Faced Nature Of Small Heat Shock Proteins: Amyloid Assembly And The Inhibition Of Fibril Formation. Relevance To Disease States, Heath W. Ecroyd, S Meehan, John A. Carver Dec 2012

The Two-Faced Nature Of Small Heat Shock Proteins: Amyloid Assembly And The Inhibition Of Fibril Formation. Relevance To Disease States, Heath W. Ecroyd, S Meehan, John A. Carver

Heath Ecroyd

The ability of small heat-shock proteins (sHsps) such as alphaB-crystallin to inhibit the amorphous (disordered) aggregation of varied target proteins in a chaperone-like manner has been well described. The mechanistic details of this action are not understood. Amyloid fibril formation is an alternative off-folding pathway that leads to highly ordered beta-sheet-containing aggregates. Amyloid fibril formation is associated with a broad range of protein conformational diseases such as Alzhiemer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's and sHsp expression is elevated in the protein deposits that are characteristic of these disease states. The ability of sHsps to prevent fibril formation has been less well characterised. …


Binding Of The Molecular Chaperone Alphab-Crystallin To Abeta Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Fibril Elongation, Sarah L. Shammas, Christopher A. Waudby, Shuyu Wang, Alexander K. Buell, Tuomas P. Knowles, Heath W. Ecroyd, Mark E. Welland, John A. Carver, Christopher M. Dobson, Sarah Meehan Dec 2012

Binding Of The Molecular Chaperone Alphab-Crystallin To Abeta Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Fibril Elongation, Sarah L. Shammas, Christopher A. Waudby, Shuyu Wang, Alexander K. Buell, Tuomas P. Knowles, Heath W. Ecroyd, Mark E. Welland, John A. Carver, Christopher M. Dobson, Sarah Meehan

Heath Ecroyd

The molecular chaperone αB-crystallin is a small heat-shock protein that is upregulated in response to a multitude of stress stimuli, and is found colocalized with Aβ amyloid fibrils in the extracellular plaques that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. We investigated whether this archetypical small heat-shock protein has the ability to interact with Aβ fibrils in vitro. We find that αB-crystallin binds to wild-type Aβ42 fibrils with micromolar affinity, and also binds to fibrils formed from the E22G Arctic mutation of Aβ42. Immunoelectron microscopy confirms that binding occurs along the entire length and ends of the fibrils. Investigations into the effect …


Carboxymethylated-K-Casein: A Convenient Tool For The Identification Of Polyphenolic Inhibitors Of Amyloid Fibril Formation, John A. Carver, Peter J. Duggan, Heath Ecroyd, Yanqin Liu, Adam G. Meyer, C E. Tranberg Dec 2011

Carboxymethylated-K-Casein: A Convenient Tool For The Identification Of Polyphenolic Inhibitors Of Amyloid Fibril Formation, John A. Carver, Peter J. Duggan, Heath Ecroyd, Yanqin Liu, Adam G. Meyer, C E. Tranberg

Heath Ecroyd

Reduced and carboxymethylated-κ-casein (RCM-κ-CN) is a milk-derived amyloidogenic protein that readily undergoes nucleation-dependent aggregation and amyloid fibril formation via a similar pathway to disease-specific amyloidogenic peptides like amyloid beta (Aβ), which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, a series of flavonoids, many known to be inhibitors of Aβ fibril formation, were screened for their ability to inhibit RCM-κ-CN fibrilisation, and the results were compared with literature data on Aβ inhibition. Flavonoids that had a high degree of hydroxylation and molecular planarity gave good inhibition of RCM-κ-CN fibril formation. IC50 values were between 10- and 200-fold higher with RCM-κ-CN …


The Dissociated Form Of Kappa-Casein Is The Precursor To Its Amyloid Fibril Formation, Heath Ecroyd, David Thorn, Yanqin Liu, John Carver Dec 2011

The Dissociated Form Of Kappa-Casein Is The Precursor To Its Amyloid Fibril Formation, Heath Ecroyd, David Thorn, Yanqin Liu, John Carver

Heath Ecroyd

Bovine milk kappa-casein forms a self-associating oligomeric micelle-like species, in equilibrium with dissociated forms. In its native form, intra- and inter-molecular disulfide bonds lead to the formation of multimeric species ranging from monomers to decamers. When incubated under conditions of physiological pH and temperature, both reduced and non-reduced kappa-casein form highly structured beta-sheet amyloid fibrils. We investigated whether the precursor to kappa-casein fibril formation is a dissociated state of the protein or its oligomeric micelle-like form. We show that reduced kappa-casein is capable of forming fibrils well below its critical micelle concentration, i.e. at concentrations where only dissociated forms of …


The Thioflavin T Fluorescence Assay For Amyloid Fibril Detection Can Be Biased By The Presence Of Exogenous Compounds, Sean A. Hudson, Heath Ecroyd, Tak W. Kee, John A. Carver Dec 2011

The Thioflavin T Fluorescence Assay For Amyloid Fibril Detection Can Be Biased By The Presence Of Exogenous Compounds, Sean A. Hudson, Heath Ecroyd, Tak W. Kee, John A. Carver

Heath Ecroyd

Thioflavin T (ThT) dye fluorescence is used regularly to quantify the formation and inhibition of amyloid fibrils in the presence of anti-amyloidogenic compounds such as polyphenols. However, in this study, it was shown, using three polyphenolics (curcumin, quercetin and resveratrol), that ThT fluorescence should be used with caution in the presence of such exogenous compounds. The strong absorptive and fluorescent properties of quercetin and curcumin were found to significantly bias the ThT fluorescence readings in both in situ real-time ThT assays and single time-point dilution ThT-type assays. The presence of curcumin at concentrations as low as 0.01 and 1 uM …


Crystallin Proteins And Amyloid Fibrils, Heath Ecroyd, John A. Carver Dec 2011

Crystallin Proteins And Amyloid Fibrils, Heath Ecroyd, John A. Carver

Heath Ecroyd

Improper protein folding (misfolding) can lead to the formation of disordered (amorphous) or ordered (amyloid fibril) aggregates. The major lens protein, alpha-crystallin, is a member of the small heat-shock protein (sHsp) family of intracellular molecular chaperone proteins that prevent protein aggregation. Whilst the chaperone activity of sHsps against amorphously aggregating proteins has been well studied, its action against fibril-forming proteins has received less attention despite the presence of sHsps in deposits found in fibril-associated diseases (e.g. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's). In this review, the literature on the interaction of alpha B-crystallin and other sHsps with fibril-forming proteins is summarized. In particular, …


Alphab-Crystallin Inhibits The Cell Toxicity Associated With Amyloid Fibril Formation By Kappa-Casein And The Amyloid-Beta Peptide, Francis C. Dehle, Heath Ecroyd, Ian F. Musgrave, John A. Carver Dec 2011

Alphab-Crystallin Inhibits The Cell Toxicity Associated With Amyloid Fibril Formation By Kappa-Casein And The Amyloid-Beta Peptide, Francis C. Dehle, Heath Ecroyd, Ian F. Musgrave, John A. Carver

Heath Ecroyd

Amyloid fibril formation is associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and prion diseases. Inhibition of amyloid fibril formation by molecular chaperone proteins, such as the small heat-shock protein αB-crystallin, may play a protective role in preventing the toxicity associated with this form of protein misfolding. Reduced and carboxymethylated κ-casein (RCMκ-CN), a protein derived from milk, readily and reproducibly forms fibrils at physiological temperature and pH. We investigated the toxicity of fibril formation by RCMκ-CN using neuronal model PC12 cells and determined whether the inhibition of fibril formation altered its cell toxicity. To resolve ambiguities in the literature, we also …


The Interaction Of Alphab-Crystallin With Mature Alpha-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Their Elongation, Christopher A. Waudby, Tuomas P. J Knowles, Glyn L. Devlin, Jeremy N. Skepper, Heath Ecroyd, John A. Carver, Mark E. Welland, John Christodoulou, Christopher M. Dobson, Sarah Meehan Dec 2011

The Interaction Of Alphab-Crystallin With Mature Alpha-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Their Elongation, Christopher A. Waudby, Tuomas P. J Knowles, Glyn L. Devlin, Jeremy N. Skepper, Heath Ecroyd, John A. Carver, Mark E. Welland, John Christodoulou, Christopher M. Dobson, Sarah Meehan

Heath Ecroyd

alphaB-Crystallin is a small heat-shock protein (sHsp) that is colocalized with alpha-synuclein (alphaSyn) in Lewy bodies—the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease—and is an inhibitor of alphaSyn amyloid fibril formation in an ATP-independent manner in vitro. We have investigated the mechanism underlying the inhibitory action of sHsps, and here we establish, by means of a variety of biophysical techniques including immunogold labeling and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, that alphaB-crystallin interacts with alphaSyn, binding along the length of mature amyloid fibrils. By measurement of seeded fibril elongation kinetics, both in solution and on a surface using a quartz crystal microbalance, this binding …