A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Alzheimer's disease amyloid peptides interact with DNA, as proved by surface plasmon resonance




AuthorsBarrantes A, Camero S, Garcia-Lucas A, Navarro PJ, Benitez MJ, Jiménez JS.

PublisherBentham Science Publishers

Publication year2012

JournalCurrent Alzheimer Research

Journal acronymCurr Alzheimer Res.

Volume9

Issue8

First page 924

Last page934

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2174/156720512803251101

Web address https://www.eurekaselect.com/103096/article


Abstract

According to the amyloid hypothesis, abnormal processing of the β-amyloid precursor protein in Alzheimer's disease patients increases the production of β-amyloid toxic peptides, which, after forming highly aggregated fibrillar structures, lead to extracellular plaques formation, neuronal loss and dementia. However, a great deal of evidence has point to intracellular small oligomers of amyloid peptides, probably transient intermediates in the process of fibrillar structures formation, as the most toxic species. In order to study the amyloid-DNA interaction, we have selected here three different forms of the amyloid peptide: Aβ1-40, Aβ25-35 and a scrambled form of Aβ25-35. Surface Plasmon Resonance was used together with UV-visible spectroscopy, Electrophoresis and Electronic Microscopy to carry out this study. Our results prove that, similarly to the full length Aβ1-42, all conformations of toxic amyloid peptides, Aβ1-40 and Aβ25-35, may bind DNA. In contrast, the scrambled form of Aβ25-35, a non-aggregating and nontoxic form of this peptide, could not bind DNA. We conclude that although the amyloid-DNA interaction is closely related to the amyloid aggregation proneness, this cannot be the only factor which determines the interaction, since small oligomers of amyloid peptides may also bind DNA if their predominant negatively charged amino acid residues are previously neutralized.



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