Membrane lipid co-aggregation with α-synuclein fibrils

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 11;8(10):e77235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077235. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Amyloid deposits from several human diseases have been found to contain membrane lipids. Co-aggregation of lipids and amyloid proteins in amyloid aggregates, and the related extraction of lipids from cellular membranes, can influence structure and function in both the membrane and the formed amyloid deposit. Co-aggregation can therefore have important implications for the pathological consequences of amyloid formation. Still, very little is known about the mechanism behind co-aggregation and molecular structure in the formed aggregates. To address this, we study in vitro co-aggregation by incubating phospholipid model membranes with the Parkinson's disease-associated protein, α-synuclein, in monomeric form. After aggregation, we find spontaneous uptake of phospholipids from anionic model membranes into the amyloid fibrils. Phospholipid quantification, polarization transfer solid-state NMR and cryo-TEM together reveal co-aggregation of phospholipids and α-synuclein in a saturable manner with a strong dependence on lipid composition. At low lipid to protein ratios, there is a close association of phospholipids to the fibril structure, which is apparent from reduced phospholipid mobility and morphological changes in fibril bundling. At higher lipid to protein ratios, additional vesicles adsorb along the fibrils. While interactions between lipids and amyloid-protein are generally discussed within the perspective of different protein species adsorbing to and perturbing the lipid membrane, the current work reveals amyloid formation in the presence of lipids as a co-aggregation process. The interaction leads to the formation of lipid-protein co-aggregates with distinct structure, dynamics and morphology compared to assemblies formed by either lipid or protein alone.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid / chemistry
  • Amyloid / metabolism
  • Cell Membrane / chemistry
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Membrane Lipids / chemistry
  • Membrane Lipids / metabolism*
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Phospholipids / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • alpha-Synuclein / chemistry
  • alpha-Synuclein / metabolism*

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • Membrane Lipids
  • Phospholipids
  • alpha-Synuclein

Grants and funding

The Swedish Research Council (VR) is gratefully acknowledged for financial support both through regular grants 2011–4334 (DT), 2005–2936 (DT), 2008–4281 (SL), 2012–3932 (ES) and the Linnaeus Center of Excellence "Organizing molecular matter" 2009–6794 (DT, SL, ES). ES, SL and EH also acknowledges The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (ES), the Crafoord Foundation (SL) and the Royal Physiographic Society (EH) for financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.