Lipid Dynamics and Phase Transition within α-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils

J Phys Chem Lett. 2019 Dec 19;10(24):7872-7877. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03005. Epub 2019 Dec 6.

Abstract

The deposition of coassemblies made of the small presynaptic protein, α-synuclein, and lipids in the brains of patients is the hallmark of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we used natural abundance 13C and 31P magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy together with cryo-electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry to characterize the fibrils formed by α-synuclein in the presence of vesicles made of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-L-serine or 1,2-dilauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-L-serine. Our results show that these lipids coassemble with α-synuclein molecules to give thin and curly amyloid fibrils. The coassembly leads to slower and more isotropic reorientation of lipid molecular segments and a decrease in both the temperature and enthalpy of the lipid chain-melting compared with those in the protein-free lipid lamellar phase. These findings provide new insights into the properties of lipids within protein-lipid assemblies that can be associated with Parkinson's disease.

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid / chemistry*
  • Kinetics
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Phase Transition
  • Protein Binding
  • Serine / chemistry
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thermodynamics
  • Transition Temperature
  • alpha-Synuclein / chemistry*

Substances

  • Amyloid
  • Lipid Bilayers
  • alpha-Synuclein
  • Serine