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Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society (BKCS)

ISSN 0253-2964(Print)
ISSN 1229-5949(Online)
Volume 35, Number 2
BKCSDE 35(2)
February 20, 2014 

 
Title
Amyloid Polymorphism of α-Synuclein Induced by Active Firefly Luciferase
Author
Jee Eun Yang, Je Won Hong, Jehoon Kim, Seung R. Paik*
Keywords
α-Synuclein, Amyloidogenesis, Fibrillar polymorphsim, Firefly luciferase, Parkinson’s disease
Abstract
Amyloidogenic proteins often exhibit fibrillar polymorphism through alternative assembly processes, which has been considered to have possible pathological implications. Here, firefly luciferase (LUC) is shown to induce amyloid polymorphism of α-synuclein, the major constituent of Lewy bodies found in Parkinson’s disease, by acting as a novel template. The drastically accelerated fibrillation kinetics of -synuclein with LUC required the nucleation center produced by the active enzyme of LUC. Fluorescent dye binding, transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy revealed the morphologically distinctive amyloid fibrils of α-synuclein prepared in the absence or presence of LUC. As the altered morphological characteristics became inherent to the mature fibrils, those properties were inherited to next-generations via nucleation-dependent fibrillation process. The seed control, therefore, would be an effective means to modify amyloid fibrils with different biochemical characteristics. In addition, the LUC-directed amyloid fibrillar polymorphism also suggests that other cellular biomolecules including enzymes in general are able to diversify amyloid fibrils, which could be self-propagated with diversified biological activities, if any, inside cells.
Page
425 - 430
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