Investigating a Parkinson’s Associated Protein Alpha-Synuclein: A Study of Fibril Restructuring via Lipid Binding

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Date
2021-04-02
Authors
Medeiros, Justin
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Publisher
University of Guelph
Abstract

Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is a small presynaptic protein that is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). α-syn has been shown to cluster to presynaptic mitochondria in response to cardiolipin (CL) exposure from the inner to outer mitochondrial membrane, facilitating the restructuring of α-syn fibrils toward their non-toxic membrane-bound monomer form. We utilize solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ssNMR) to site-specifically characterize this lipid-mediated restructuring of the fibril form. We begin with chemical shift assignments of the mobile C-terminal tail for the monomeric membrane-bound form with extension to the fibril form, then report partial assignments of the rigid fibril core. Results suggest that lipid induced restructuring is not CL specific, with similar changes to the fibril form via another anionic lipid, DOPA. Only partial transition to α-helical structure is observed while much of the original β-sheet fibril structure persists, suggesting only partial N-terminal binding.

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Keywords
alpha synuclein, alpha-synuclein, Parkinson's, NMR, SSNMR, Fibril, Cardiolipin, Fibril restructuring, Amyloid, protein, Magic-angle spinning, Solid-state NMR, Chemical Shifts, Secondary Structure
Citation
Medeiros J, Bamm VV, Jany C, Coackley C, Ward ME, Harauz G, Ryan SD, Ladizhansky V. Partial magic angle spinning NMR 1H, 13C, 15N resonance assignments of the flexible regions of a monomeric alpha-synuclein: conformation of C-terminus in the lipid-bound and amyloid fibril states. Biomol NMR Assign. 2021 Apr 2. doi: 10.1007/s12104-021-10020-z.