Extremely rapid folding of the C-terminal domain of the prion protein without kinetic intermediates.

The kinetics of folding of mPrP(121-231), the structured 111-residue domain of the murine cellular prion protein PrP(C), were investigated by stopped-flow fluorescence using the variant F175W, which has the same overall structure and stability as wild-type mPrP(121-231) but shows a strong fluorescence change upon unfolding. At 22 degrees C and pH 7.0, folding of mPrP(121-231)-F175W is too fast to be observable by stopped-flow techniques. Folding at 4 degrees C occurs with a deduced half-life of approximately 170 micros without detectable intermediates, possibly the fastest protein-folding reaction known so far. Thus, propagation of the abnormal, oligomeric prion protein PrP(Sc), which is supposed to be the causative agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, is unlikely to follow a mechanism where kinetic folding intermediates of PrP(C) are a source of PrP(Sc) subunits.