Molecular Tethering Effect of C‑Terminus of Amyloid Peptide Aβ42

• Published in: ACS nano Vol. 8; no. 9; pp. 9503 - 9510
• Main Authors: Liu, Lei, Niu, Lin, Xu, Meng, Han, Qiusen, Duan, Hongyang, Dong, Mingdong, Besenbacher, Flemming, Wang, Chen, Yang, Yanlian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 23.09.2014
• Subjects: Amyloid beta-Peptides - chemistry; Amyloid beta-Peptides - metabolism; Amyloid beta-Peptides - toxicity; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Membrane - drug effects; Cell Membrane - metabolism; Humans; Kinetics; Models, Molecular; Peptide Fragments - chemistry; Peptide Fragments - metabolism; Peptide Fragments - toxicity; Protein Aggregates - drug effects; Protein Binding; Protein Multimerization; Protein Structure, Secondary; Pyridines - metabolism; Pyridines - pharmacology; peptide aggregation; amyloid peptide; membrane disruption; molecular tethering effect; modulation
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/nn503737r

Amyloid peptides are considered to be the main contributor for the membrane disruption related to the pathogenesis of degenerative diseases. The variation of amino acids at the carboxylic terminus of amyloid peptide has revealed significant effects on the modulation of abnormal assemblies of amyloid peptides. In this work, molecular binding agents were tethered to the C-terminus of β-amyloid peptide 1–42 (Aβ42). The molecular interaction between Aβ42 and molecule tethers was identified at single molecule level by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The mechanistic insight into the feature variation of the self-assembly of Aβ42 peptide caused by molecular tethering at C-terminus was clearly revealed, which could appreciably affect the nucleation of amyloid peptide, thus reducing the membrane disruptions.