Abstract
Recently the 3D structure of the Osaka mutant form (E22Δ) of Amyloid-β1-40 has been determined. We here compare the NMR chemical-shift with the published shifts of a brain-seeded form of wild-type Aβ and suggest that the determined mutant fold is accessible to the wild-type protein as well, with small conformational adaptations which accommodate the E22 residue missing in the Osaka mutant. In addition, we illustrate how other mutants could also conform to this model. The stabilization of the N-terminal part of the protein via an intermolecular salt bridge to Lys28 may represent a common structural motif for the mutants which are related to early-onset Alzheimer disease. This feature might connect to the observed increased toxicity of the mutant forms compared to wild-type Aβ1-40, where the salt bridge involving Lys28 is intramolecular.
Introduction
Amyloid-β (Aβ) in its different conformations and aggregation states is a central player in the amyloid-cascade hypothesis for Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Hardy and Higgins, ). Brain-derived or synthetic aggregates were shown to propagate between cells when injected into transgenic mice (Kane et al., ; Eisele et al., ). It is not established whether the Aβ fibrils or smaller oligomers, or both, are the toxic species (Benilova et al., ; Cohen et al., ; Matsuzaki, ). The existence of mutants that lead to early onset AD (Wu et al., 2012) offers an opportunity to characterize the conformational space available to the Aβ peptide in fibrillar or oligomeric state. Amyloids in general, and Aβ in particular, are known for their ability to form a number of polymorphs (Meier and Böckmann, ), and it has been proposed that they are at the origin of different phenotypes of the disease, reminiscent of the appearance of strains in prion disease (Meyer-Luehmann et al., ; Colby and Prusiner, ; Stöhr et al., ). Different mutant forms of Aβ have been identified involving a single-residue deletion or substitution at or adjacent to residue E22, e.g., Flemish A21G (Hendriks et al., ), Arctic E22G (Kamino et al., ; Nilsberth et al., ), Dutch E22Q (Levy et al., ; Van Broeckhoven et al., 1990), Italian E22K (Tagliavini et al., ; Bugiani et al., ), Iowa D23N (Grabowski et al., ), and the Osaka deletion mutation E22Δ (Tomiyama et al., 2008; Ovchinnikova et al., ). These mutants cause early-onset AD, and they display different toxicity profiles in in vitro and in vivo studies compared to wild-type Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42.
Knowledge of the atomic-resolution 3D structure is central for the understanding of the molecular basis underlying the amyloid diseases, and solid-state NMR is a powerful method to determine and characterize structures of amyloid fibrils at atomic resolution (Wasmer et al., 2008) and to map the conformational space available to these proteins. In addition to the Osaka mutant structure, (Schütz et al., ) several wild-type Aβ fibril polymorphs have been characterized (Petkova et al., ; Paravastu et al., ; Bertini et al., ; Lopez del Amo et al., ; Lu et al., ; Niu et al., ), and a model for the Iowa mutant was presented (Sgourakis et al., ).
Despite a large body of literature, there is presently not enough high-resolution structural data available to establish a detailed structure-toxicity relationship for amyloids in general, and Aβ in particular (Tiller and Tessier, 2013). However, virtually complete chemical-shift information for all 40 residues has recently become available for two wild-type and a mutant form of Aβ1-40. We use this information here to suggest, on the basis of a comparison of NMR chemical-shift values between the Osaka mutant (Huber et al., ; Schütz et al., ) and one of the wild-type polymorphs (Lu et al., ), that the wild-type peptide has indeed the ability to assume the fold established for Aβ1-40 E22Δ (Schütz et al., ), albeit with a modified in-out pattern of the amino-acid residues in the loop comprising residues 20–31. Furthermore, we illustrate how other early-onset Aβ mutants can in principle form a similar fold. We speculate that the key feature of the mutant folds is the formation of an intermolecular salt bridge, attaching the N-terminal residues to the fibril core, as opposed to the wild-type protein, where the situation is substantially different, as residue K28 was experimentally shown to be involved in an intramolecular salt bridge (Lu et al., ). As a consequence, the N-terminus is less tightly attached, which impacts fibril properties, and potentially those of prefibrillar states (Tarus et al., 2006; Reddy et al., ).
Materials and methods
Calculation of the model for the WT Aβ dimer
The calculation was performed as described for the “manual calculations” in reference (Schütz et al., ). For residues 2–4, and 20–31, TALOS+ angles were calculated from the deposited chemical shifts (Lu et al., ). Unambiguous distance restraints, as determined in Schütz et al. () for the mutant form, were used for the residues which show concomitant chemical shifts in both proteins (blue residues in Figure 1C). The list of distance restraints used is therefore a subset of the list given in Schütz et al. (), namely the ones between two residues from the range 1, 5–19, 32–40, and is listed in Table S1. The orientations of the β-strands were defined for β-sheets 1, 2, 4, and 5 in the same manner as in the mutant form (for the strand numbering see Figures 1D–E). This input was not sufficient to distinguish between the possible orientations of the two β-strands spanning residues E22-V24 (strand 2a) and S26-K28 (strand 3) in the wild-type protein (Figure 1D) on the basis of restraint violations. The following additional considerations were used as constraints for the structure calculations: (i) The assigned side-chain Cγ/δ chemical shifts in the brain-seeded WT polymorph for D23 and E22 respectively show chemical-shift values typical of charged COO− side-chain moieties (Lu et al., ). (ii) The β-sheet structure of E22-V24 evidenced by the secondary chemical shifts (Figure 1D) observed for the brain-seeded WT polymorph implies that either E22 or D23 point to the inside of the fibril. (iii) The thus introduced E22 or D23 negative charge inside the fibril should be compensated by a positive charge in order to yield a stable fibril. Here, K28 is the only possible partner. From these three points, we can infer that S26-K28 shows an in-out-in pattern, allowing for charge compensation. This leaves the two options of an out-in-out or in-out-in orientation for E22-V24, but steric clashes between V24 and S26 (in an in-out-in orientation of E22-V24) strongly suggest an out-in-out pattern, with D23 pointing inside. And indeed, the D23-K28 salt bridge has been described in most WT models (Paravastu et al., ; Lu et al., ).
Figure 1
Structural models for the mutants
For all mutant form models, dihedral angle restraints from Schütz et al. (
Figure 2

(A) The structure of the Osaka mutant E22Δ from Schütz et al. (
Results and discussion
The wild-type protein can adopt a similar fold as the osaka mutant
Chemical-shift comparisons between proteins represent a sensitive means to assess differences and similarities in 3D structures, as shift differences point to conformational differences for the observed residue. Comparison of wild-type Aβ chemical shifts described by Lu et al. (
To illustrate the location of these changes, we plotted the absolute value of the mean chemical-shift differences from Figure 1A, displayed in Figure 1B, on the Aβ E22Δ mutant structure in Figure 1C: residues with similar shifts are colored in blue, others in red. Blue residues cover the entire hydrophobic core, as well as the largest parts of β-sheets 1 and 2. Importantly, the two regions displaying larger chemical-shift differences are distant in sequence, but spatially contiguous if plotted on the Aβ E22Δ mutant structure. They concern the loop as well as the N-terminus attached to the loop via the E3-K28 salt bridge. For comparison, the other wild-type polymorph with complete assignments (Bertini et al.,
Comparison of secondary structural features of WT Aβ and the osaka mutant
Secondary chemical shifts [the difference to random-coil shifts (Bax,
A speculative structure for a WT Aβ polymorph
We have noted that the monomer conformation for the residues mentioned above is very similar for the WT from the brain-seeded sample and the Osaka mutation despite the fact that the polymorph of the mutant form is described by a two-fold symmetry (Schütz et al.,
Table 1
| Residues 5–19 and 32–40 | Residues 1–4 and 20–31 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distance restraints | Inter/Intra-molecularly and spectrally unambiguous restraints | None | ||
| TALOS+ angles | BMRB 25289 (Schütz et al., | BMRB 19009 (Lu et al., | ||
| Sequence | 1 | 10 | 20 | 30 |
| DAEFRHDSG | YEVHHQKLVF | FAEDVGSNKG | AIIGLMVGGVV | |
| β-Strands | 1---- | 2--------- | 2a- 3-- | 4-- 5-- |
| Orientation of first residue | In | Out | Out In | Out In |
Information used as input for WT model building.
Distance restraints from the Osaka mutant were used between the residues which show small chemical shift-differences (blue in Figure 1C). A list is given in Table S1. TALOS+ angles were calculated from the given chemical shift depositions and the restraints for CYANA calculations had a range over the top 10 database matches ± 15°. Residues without dihedral angle restraints were: all glycines; residues D1 and V40 being the terminal residues; and residues A21 and V24 which had a warning in the TALOS+ prediction. Although F20 also has a warning in the TALOS+ prediction, the restraint was still used, since secondary chemical shifts in both the WT (Lu et al.,
Structural models for other mutant forms
A common feature shared by all the here discussed early-onset mutants is that their amino-acids composition is such that the presence of a negative charge in the fibril interior can be avoided, which in turn allows an outside orientation of Lys28 and a rigidification of the N-terminal β-strand by its attachment to the fibril core via the E3-K28 salt bridge. Hypothetical models for the different mutant forms are shown in Figure S2 (for details of the calculations, see Materials and Methods Section), and drawings of the regions of interest are shown in Figures 2C–G. The Dutch, Iowa and Arctic mutants all result in the replacement of a negative charge of the wild-type peptide, either D23 or E22, by a polar residue, which easily accommodates then a charge-free fibril interior in the loop encompassing residues 20–31. In the Flemish mutant, the A21G mutation introduced additional flexibility, which can accommodate an outside orientation of both E22 and D23. In the Italian mutant, replacement of E22 by a positive charge (K22) allows to stabilize D23 outside by a salt bridge with K22. The calculations carried out for the mutant forms (Figure S2) show that the above discussed hypothetical conformations can be realized without steric hindrance.
Conclusion
In summary, while we cannot ascertain from our calculations that Lys28 must be pointing outside in the early onset Aβ mutants discussed here, we could show that there are no restraint violations, static clashes or unbalanced charges inside the loop when Lys28 points outside. Consequently, the residue can engage in an energetically favorable salt bridge with the N-terminus of the protein. The Osaka polymorph fold is thus in principle accessible to the other mutant forms, and the possibility to assume this fold could be of importance to early onset. In any case, the models presented here provide presently testable hypotheses in mutational studies allowing to experimentally confirm the central role of K28 in the increased toxicity of mutant forms (Levy et al.,
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Statements
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF (grant 200020_134681, 200020_146757), and the CNRS (ANR-12-BS08-0013-01, ANR-11-BSV8-021-01).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmolb.2015.00014/abstract
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Summary
Keywords
amyloid-beta, Osaka mutant, Alzheimer's disease, 3D structure, solid-state NMR
Citation
Schledorn M, Meier BH and Böckmann A (2015) Alternative salt bridge formation in Aβ—a hallmark of early-onset Alzheimer's disease?. Front. Mol. Biosci. 2:14. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2015.00014
Received
20 February 2015
Accepted
07 April 2015
Published
28 April 2015
Volume
2 - 2015
Edited by
Annalisa Pastore, King's College London, UK
Reviewed by
Manuel Etzkorn, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany; Piero Andrea Temussi, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Copyright
© 2015 Schledorn, Meier and Böckmann.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Beat H. Meier, Physical Chemistry, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland beme@ethz.ch;
This article was submitted to Structural Biology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
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