Jakowiecki Jakub, Orzeł Urszula, Miszta Przemysław, Młynarczyk Krzysztof, Filipek Sławomir
Faculty of Chemistry, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Feb 22;25(5):2564. doi: 10.3390/ijms25052564.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia and is characterized by a presence of amyloid plaques, composed mostly of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides, in the brains of AD patients. The peptides are generated from the amyloid precursor protein (APP), which undergoes a sequence of cleavages, referred as trimming, performed by γ-secretase. Here, we investigated conformational changes in a series of β-amyloid substrates (from less and more amyloidogenic pathways) in the active site of presenilin-1, the catalytic subunit of γ-secretase. The substrates are trimmed every three residues, finally leading to Aβ and Aβ, which are the major components of amyloid plaques. To study conformational changes, we employed all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, while for unfolding, we used steered molecular dynamics simulations in an implicit membrane-water environment to accelerate changes. We have found substantial differences in the flexibility of extended C-terminal parts between more and less amyloidogenic pathway substrates. We also propose that the positively charged residues of presenilin-1 may facilitate the stretching and unfolding of substrates. The calculated forces and work/energy of pulling were exceptionally high for Aβ, indicating why trimming of this substrate is so infrequent.
阿尔茨海默病(AD)是痴呆症的主要病因,其特征是AD患者大脑中存在淀粉样斑块,这些斑块主要由淀粉样β(Aβ)肽组成。这些肽由淀粉样前体蛋白(APP)产生,APP会经历一系列切割,即由γ-分泌酶进行的所谓修剪。在此,我们研究了γ-分泌酶的催化亚基早老素-1活性位点中一系列β-淀粉样底物(来自较少和较多淀粉样生成途径)的构象变化。底物每隔三个残基被修剪一次,最终产生Aβ和Aβ,它们是淀粉样斑块的主要成分。为了研究构象变化,我们采用了全原子分子动力学模拟,而对于解折叠,我们在隐式膜-水环境中使用了引导分子动力学模拟以加速变化。我们发现,在较多和较少淀粉样生成途径底物之间,延伸的C末端部分的灵活性存在显著差异。我们还提出,早老素-1的带正电荷残基可能促进底物的拉伸和解折叠。对于Aβ,计算得到的拉力和拉动功/能量异常高,这表明该底物的修剪为何如此罕见。