Tetrameric Aβ40 and Aβ42 β-Barrel Structures by Extensive Atomistic Simulations. II. In Aqueous Solution

J Phys Chem B. 2019 Aug 8;123(31):6750-6756. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.9b05288. Epub 2019 Jul 24.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation of extracellular Aβ42 and Aβ40 oligomers and plaques. In a recent computational study, we found that the presence of the residues I41 and A42 increases significantly the propensity of Aβ to form a tetrameric β-barrel structure in a bilayer mimicking a neuronal membrane. In this work, we have determined the propensity of the two Aβ proteins to form tetrameric β-barrel structures in aqueous solution using four atomistic protein fields, that is, Amber99SB-ILDN/TIP3P, OPLS/TIP3P, CHARMM36m/TIP3P-modified, and Amber99SB/DISP. Extensive replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations make it clear that a β-barrel, made of two distinct β-hairpin motifs and an asymmetric arrangement of eight antiparallel β-strands with an inner pore diameter of 0.7 nm, exists transiently for Aβ42 peptide, but this is less the case for Aβ40 peptide, due to the change of the CHC-CHC and the Cter-Cter interfaces. This study has several implications in AD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / chemistry*
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*
  • Protein Stability
  • Protein Structure, Quaternary
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Peptide Fragments
  • amyloid beta-protein (1-40)
  • amyloid beta-protein (1-42)