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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Tiago OuteiroORCiD
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© 2016, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.Synucleinopathies are a group of progressive disorders characterized by the abnormal aggregation and accumulation of α-synuclein (aSyn), an abundant neuronal protein that can adopt different conformations and biological properties. Recently, aSyn pathology was shown to spread between neurons in a prion-like manner. Proteins like aSyn that exhibit self-propagating capacity appear to be able to adopt different stable conformational states, known as protein strains, which can be modulated both by environmental and by protein-intrinsic factors. Here, we analyzed these factors and found that the unique combination of the neurodegeneration-related metal copper and the pathological H50Q aSyn mutation induces a significant alteration in the aggregation properties of aSyn. We compared the aggregation of WT and H50Q aSyn with and without copper, and assessed the effects of the resultant protein species when applied to primary neuronal cultures. The presence of copper induces the formation of structurally different and less-damaging aSyn aggregates. Interestingly, these aggregates exhibit a stronger capacity to induce aSyn inclusion formation in recipient cells, which demonstrates that the structural features of aSyn species determine their effect in neuronal cells and supports a lack of correlation between toxicity and inclusion formation. In total, our study provides strong support in favor of the hypothesis that protein aggregation is not a primary cause of cytotoxicity.
Author(s): Villar-Pique A, Da Fonseca TL, Sant'Anna R, Szego EM, Fonseca-Ornelas L, Pinho R, Carija A, Gerhardt E, Masaracchia C, Gonzalez EA, Rossetti G, Carloni P, Fernandez CO, Foguel D, Milosevic I, Zweckstetter M, Ventura S, Outeiro TF
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year: 2016
Volume: 113
Issue: 42
Pages: E6506-E6515
Print publication date: 18/10/2016
Online publication date: 05/10/2016
Acceptance date: 02/09/2016
ISSN (print): 0027-8424
ISSN (electronic): 1091-6490
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1606791113
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606791113
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