Demixing transition of the aqueous solution of amyloidogenic peptides: a REMD simulation study

Nucleation of β-rich oligomers and β-barrels in the early aggregation of human islet amyloid polypeptide

The self-assembly of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) into β-sheet rich amyloid aggregates is associated with pancreatic β-cell death in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Prior experimental studies of hIAPP aggregation reported the early accumulation of α-helical intermediates before the rapid conversion into β-sheet rich amyloid fibrils, as also corroborated by our experimental characterizations with transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Although increasing evidence suggests that small oligomers populating early hIAPP aggregation play crucial roles in cytotoxicity, structures of these oligomer intermediates and their conformational conversions remain unknown, hindering our understanding of T2D disease mechanism and therapeutic design targeting these early aggregation species. We further applied large-scale discrete molecule dynamics simulations to investigate the oligomerization of full-length hIAPP, employing multiple molecular systems of increasing number of peptides. We found that the oligomerization process was dynamic, involving frequent inter-oligomeric exchanges. On average, oligomers had more α-helices than β-sheets, consistent with ensemble-based experimental measurements. However, in ~4-6% independent simulations, β-rich oligomers expected as the fibrillization intermediates were observed, especially in the pentamer and hexamer simulations. These β-rich oligomers could adopt β-barrel conformations, recently postulated to be the toxic oligomer species but only observed computationally in the aggregates of short amyloid protein fragments. Free-energy analysis revealed high energies of these β-rich oligomers, supporting the nucleated conformational changes of oligomers in amyloid aggregation. β-barrel oligomers of full-length hIAPP with well-defined three-dimensional structures may play an important pathological role in T2D etiology and may be a therapeutic target for the disease.

Conformational Ensemble of hIAPP Dimer: Insight into the Molecular Mechanism by which a Green Tea Extract inhibits hIAPP Aggregation

Small oligomers formed early along human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) aggregation is responsible for the cell death in Type II diabetes. The epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a green tea extract, was found to inhibit hIAPP fibrillation. However, the inhibition mechanism and the conformational distribution of the smallest hIAPP oligomer – dimer are mostly unknown. Herein, we performed extensive replica exchange molecular dynamic simulations on hIAPP dimer with and without EGCG molecules. Extended hIAPP dimer conformations, with a collision cross section value similar to that observed by ion mobility-mass spectrometry, were observed in our simulations. Notably, these dimers adopt a three-stranded antiparallel β-sheet and contain the previously reported β-hairpin amyloidogenic precursor. We find that EGCG binding strongly blocks both the inter-peptide hydrophobic and aromatic-stacking interactions responsible for inter-peptide β-sheet formation and intra-peptide interaction crucial for β-hairpin formation, thus abolishes the three-stranded β-sheet structures and leads to the formation of coil-rich conformations. Hydrophobic, aromatic-stacking, cation-π and hydrogen-bonding interactions jointly contribute to the EGCG-induced conformational shift. This study provides, on atomic level, the conformational ensemble of hIAPP dimer and the molecular mechanism by which EGCG inhibits hIAPP aggregation.

Conformational distribution and α-helix to β-sheet transition of human amylin fragment dimer

Experiments suggested that the fibrillation of the 11-25 fragment (hIAPP(11-25)) of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP or amylin) involves the formation of transient α-helical intermediates, followed by conversion to β-sheet-rich structure. However, atomic details of α-helical intermediates and the transition mechanism are mostly unknown. We investigated the structural properties of the monomer and dimer in atomistic detail by replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations. Transient α-helical monomers and dimers were both observed in the REMD trajectories. Our calculated H(α) chemical shifts based on the monomer REMD run are in agreement with the solution-state NMR experimental observations. Multiple 300 ns MD simulations at 310 K show that α-helix-to-β-sheet transition follows two mechanisms: the first involved direct transition of the random coil part of the helical conformation into antiparallel β-sheet, and in the second, the α-helical conformation unfolded and converted into antiparallel β-sheet. In both mechanisms, the α-helix-to-β-sheet transition occurred via random coil, and the transition was accompanied by an increase of interpeptide contacts. In addition, our REMD simulations revealed different temperature dependencies of helical and β-structures. Comparison with experimental data suggests that the propensity for hIAPP(11-25) to form α-helices and amyloid structures is concentration- and temperature-dependent.

Reduced atomic pair-interaction design (RAPID) model for simulations of proteins

Increasingly, theoretical studies of proteins focus on large systems. This trend demands the development of computational models that are fast, to overcome the growing complexity, and accurate, to capture the physically relevant features. To address this demand, we introduce a protein model that uses all-atom architecture to ensure the highest level of chemical detail while employing effective pair potentials to represent the effect of solvent to achieve the maximum speed. The effective potentials are derived for amino acid residues based on the condition that the solvent-free model matches the relevant pair-distribution functions observed in explicit solvent simulations. As a test, the model is applied to alanine polypeptides. For the chain with 10 amino acid residues, the model is found to reproduce properly the native state and its population. Small discrepancies are observed for other folding properties and can be attributed to the approximations inherent in the model. The transferability of the generated effective potentials is investigated in simulations of a longer peptide with 25 residues. A minimal set of potentials is identified that leads to qualitatively correct results in comparison with the explicit solvent simulations. Further tests, conducted for multiple peptide chains, show that the transferable model correctly reproduces the experimentally observed tendency of polyalanines to aggregate into β-sheets more strongly with the growing length of the peptide chain. Taken together, the reported results suggest that the proposed model could be used to succesfully simulate folding and aggregation of small peptides in atomic detail. Further tests are needed to assess the strengths and limitations of the model more thoroughly.

Modulation of p53 binding to MDM2: computational studies reveal important roles of Tyr100

Background

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is regulated by the ubiquitin ligase MDM2 which down-regulates p53. In tumours with overexpressed MDM2, the p53-MDM2 interaction can be interrupted by a peptide or small molecule to stabilize p53 as a therapeutic strategy. Structural and biochemical/mutagenesis data show that p53 has 3 hydrophobic residues F19, W23 and L26 that embed into the ligand binding pocket of MDM2 which is highly plastic in nature and can modulate its size to accommodate a variety of ligands. This binding pocket is primarily dependent on the orientation of a particular residue, Y100. We have studied the role of the dynamics of Y100 in p53 recognition.

Results

Molecular dynamics simulations show that the Y100 side chain can be in "open" or "closed" states with only the former enabling complex formation. When both p53 and MDM2 are in near native conformations, complex formation is rapid and is driven by the formation of a hydrogen bond between W23 of p53 and L54 of MDM2 or by the embedding of F19 of p53 into MDM2. The transition of Y100 from "closed" to "open" can increase the size of the binding site. Interconversions between these two states can be induced by the N-terminal region of MDM2 or by the conformations of the p53 peptides.

Conclusion

Molecular dynamics simulations have revealed how the binding of p53 to MDM2 is modulated by the conformational mobility of Y100 which is the gatekeeper residue in MDM2. The mobility of this residue can be modulated by the conformations of p53 and the Nterminal lid region of MDM2.