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Pancreatic islet amyloid is a characteristic feature of type 2 diabetes. The major protein component of islet amyloid is the polypeptide hormone known as islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP, or amylin). IAPP is stored with insulin in the β-cell secretory granules and is released in response to the stimuli that lead to insulin secretion. IAPP is normally soluble and is natively unfolded in its monomeric state, but forms islet amyloid in type 2 diabetes. Islet amyloid is not the cause of type 2 diabetes, but it leads to β-cell dysfunction and cell death, and contributes to the failure of islet cell transplantation. The mechanism of IAPP amyloid formation is not understood and the mechanisms of cytotoxicity are not fully defined.

Amyloid formation plays a role in a wide range of human diseases. The rate and extent of amyloid formation depend on solution conditions, including pH and ionic strength. Amyloid fibrils often adopt structures with parallel, in-register β-sheets, which generate quasi-infinite arrays of aligned side chains. These arrangements can lead to significant electrostatic interactions between adjacent polypeptide chains. The effect of ionic strength and ion composition on the kinetics of amyloid formation by islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is examined. IAPP is a basic 37-residue polypeptide responsible for islet amyloid formation in type 2 diabetes. Poisson-Boltzmann calculations revealed significant electrostatic repulsion in a model of the IAPP fibrillar state. The kinetics of IAPP amyloid formation are strongly dependent on ionic strength, varying by a factor of >10 over the range of 20-600 mM NaCl at pH 8.0, but the effect is not entirely due to Debye screening. At low ionic strengths, the rate depends strongly on the identity of the anion, varying by a factor of nearly 4, and scales with the electroselectivity series, implicating anion binding. At high ionic strengths, the rate varies by only 8% and scales with the Hofmeister series. At intermediate ionic strengths, no clear trend is detected, likely because of the convolution of different effects. The effects of salts on the growth phase and lag phase of IAPP amyloid formation are strongly correlated. At pH 5.5, where the net charge on IAPP is higher, the effect of different anions scales with the electroselectivity series at all salt concentrations.

Deamidation of asparagine and glutamine is the most common nonenzymatic, post-translational modification. Deamidation can influence the structure, stability, folding, and aggregation of proteins and has been proposed to play a role in amyloid formation. However there are no structural studies of the consequences of deamidation on amyloid fibers, in large part because of the difficulty of studying these materials using conventional methods. Here we examine the effects of deamidation on the kinetics of amyloid formation by amylin, the causative agent of type 2 diabetes. We find that deamidation accelerates amyloid formation and the deamidated material is able to seed amyloid formation by unmodified amylin. Using site-specific isotope labeling and two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy, we show that fibers formed by samples that contain deamidated polypeptide contain reduced amounts of β-sheet. Deamidation leads to disruption of the N-terminal β-sheet between Ala-8 and Ala-13, but β-sheet is still retained near Leu-16. The C-terminal sheet is disrupted near Leu-27. Analysis of potential sites of deamidation together with structural models of amylin fibers reveals that deamidation in the N-terminal β-sheet region may be the cause for the disruption of the fiber structure at both the N- and C-terminal β-sheet. Thus, deamidation is a post-translational modification that creates fibers that have an altered structure but can still act as a template for amylin aggregation. Deamidation is very difficult to detect with standard methods used to follow amyloid formation, but isotope-labeled IR spectroscopy provides a means for monitoring sample degradation and investigating the structural consequences of deamidation.

Amyloid formation has been implicated in the pathology of over 20 human diseases, but the rational design of amyloid inhibitors is hampered by a lack of structural information about amyloid-inhibitor complexes. We use isotope labelling and two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy to obtain a residue-specific structure for the complex of human amylin (the peptide responsible for islet amyloid formation in type 2 diabetes) with a known inhibitor (rat amylin). Based on its sequence, rat amylin should block formation of the C-terminal β-sheet, but at 8 h after mixing, rat amylin blocks the N-terminal β-sheet instead. At 24 h after mixing, rat amylin blocks neither β-sheet and forms its own β-sheet, most probably on the outside of the human fibrils. This is striking, because rat amylin is natively disordered and not previously known to form amyloid β-sheets. The results show that even seemingly intuitive inhibitors may function by unforeseen and complex structural processes.

The role played by the aromatic residues in the formation of amyloid by islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is examined. The results have shown that aromatic residues play a role in the fibril assembly process, although it is not an absolute requirement for amyloid formation by IAPP.

A systematic study of the effects of different side chains on p-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence which could be used as probe to study the protein folding, protein-membrane interactions, protein-peptide interactions and amyloid formation is reported. The quenching of p-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence by specific side chains could be applied to develop specific, high-sensitivity, fluorescence probes of helix formation.

The application of rifampicin as an inhibitor of amyloid formation by several different polypeptides is discussed. The analysis proves that rifampicin does not prevent amyloid fibril formation by human islet amyloid polypeptide but leads to the inhibition of the fibril thioflavin-T interactions.

Being able to control in time and space the positioning, orientation, movement, and sense of rotation of nano- to microscale objects is currently an active research area in nanoscience, having diverse nanotechnological applications. In this paper, we demonstrate unprecedented control and maneuvering of rod-shaped or tubular nanostructures with high aspect ratios which are formed by self-assembling synthetic porphyrins. The self-assembly algorithm, encoded by appended chemical-recognition groups on the periphery of these porphyrins, is the same as the one operating for chlorosomalbacteriochlorophylls (BChl's). Chlorosomes, rod-shaped organelles with relatively long-range molecular order, are the most efficient naturally occurring light-harvesting systems.1,2They are used by green photosynthetic bacteria to trap visible and infrared light of minute intensities even at great depths, e.g., 100 m below water surface or in volcanic vents in the absence of solar radiation. In contrast to most other natural light-harvesting systems, the chlorosomal antennae are devoid of a protein scaffold to orient the BChl's; thus, they are an attractive goal for mimicry by synthetic chemists, who are able to engineer more robust chromophores to self-assemble. Functional devices with environmentally friendly chromophores—which should be able to act as photosensitizers within hybrid solar cells, leading to high photon-to-current conversion efficiencies even under low illumination conditions—have yet to be fabricated. The orderly manner in which the BChl's and their synthetic counterparts self-assemble imparts strong diamagnetic and optical anisotropies and flow/shear characteristics to their nanostructured assemblies, allowing them to be manipulated by electrical, magnetic, or tribomechanical forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ρ-Cyanophenylalanine is an extremely useful fluorescence probe of protein structure that can be recombinantly and chemically incorporated into proteins. The probe has been used to study protein folding. protein-membrane interactions. protein-peptide interactions, and amyloid formation; however, the factors that control its fluorescence are not fully understood. Hydrogen bonding to the cyano group is known to play a major role in modulating the fluorescence quantum yield, but the role of potential side-chain quenchers has not yet been elucidated. A systematic study of the effects of different side chains on ρ-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence is reported. Tyr is found to have the largest effect followed by deprotonated His, Met, Cys, protonated His. Asn, Arg. and protonated Lys. Deprotonated amino groups are much more effective fluorescence quenchers than protonated amino groups. Free neutral imidazole and hydroxide ion are also effective quenchers of ρ-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence with Stern-Volmer constants of 39.8 and 22.1 M', respectively. The quenching of ρ-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence by specific side chains is exploited in developing specific, high- sensitivity, fluorescence probes of helix formation. The approach is demonstrated with Ala-based peptides that contain a ρ-cyanophenylalanine-His or a ρ-cyanophenylalanine-Tyr pair located at positions i and i + 4. The ρ-cyanophenylalanine-His pair is most useful when the His side chain is deprotonated and is, thus, complementary to the Trρ-I-lis pair which is most sensitive when the His side chain is protonated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyloid formation has been implicated in more than 20 different human diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and type 2 diabetes. The development of inhibitors of amyloid is a topic of considerable interest, both because of their potential therapeutic applications and because they are useful mechanistic probes. Recent studies have highlighted the potential use of rifampicin as an inhibitor of amyloid formation by a variety of polypeptides; however, there are conflicting reports on its ability to inhibit amyloid formation by islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP). IAPP is the cause of islet amyloid in type 2 diabetes. We show that rifampicin does not prevent amyloid formation by IAPP and does not disaggregate preformed IAPP amyloid fibrils;, instead, it interferes with standard fluorescence-based assays of amyloid formation. Rifampicin is unstable in aqueous solution and is readily oxidized. However, the effects of oxidized and reduced rifampicin are similar, in that neither prevents amyloid formation by IAPP. Furthermore, use of a novel p-cyanoPhe analogue of TAPP shows that rifampicin does not significantly affect the kinetics of IAPP amyloid formation. The implications for the development of amyloid inhibitors are discussed as are the implications for studies of the toxicity of islet amyloid. The work also demonstrates the utility of p-cyanoPhe IAPP for the screening of inhibitors. The data indicate that rifampicin cannot be used to test the relative toxicity of IAPP fibrils and prefibril aggregates of IAPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]