Volume 128, Issue 37 pp. 11403-11407
Zuschrift

Nucleation of Amyloid Oligomers by RepA-WH1-Prionoid-Functionalized Gold Nanorods

Dr. Cristina Fernández

Dr. Cristina Fernández

Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas—CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Guillermo González-Rubio

Guillermo González-Rubio

Departamento de Química Física I, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain

BioNanoPlasmonics Laboratory, CIC biomaGUNE, Donostia—, 20009 San Sebastián, Spain

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Dr. Judith Langer

Dr. Judith Langer

BioNanoPlasmonics Laboratory, CIC biomaGUNE, Donostia—, 20009 San Sebastián, Spain

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Prof. Gloria Tardajos

Prof. Gloria Tardajos

Departamento de Química Física I, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain

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Prof. Luis M. Liz-Marzán

Prof. Luis M. Liz-Marzán

BioNanoPlasmonics Laboratory, CIC biomaGUNE, Donostia—, 20009 San Sebastián, Spain

Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain

Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials, and Nanomedicine, CIBER-BBN, Spain

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Prof. Rafael Giraldo

Corresponding Author

Prof. Rafael Giraldo

Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas—CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain

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Dr. Andrés Guerrero-Martínez

Corresponding Author

Dr. Andrés Guerrero-Martínez

Departamento de Química Física I, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain

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First published: 04 August 2016
Citations: 2

Abstract

Understanding protein amyloidogenesis is an important topic in protein science, fueled by the role of amyloid aggregates, especially oligomers, in the etiology of a number of devastating human degenerative diseases. However, the mechanisms that determine the formation of amyloid oligomers remain elusive due to the high complexity of the amyloidogenesis process. For instance, gold nanoparticles promote or inhibit amyloid fibrillation. We have functionalized gold nanorods with a metal-chelating group to selectively immobilize soluble RepA-WH1, a model synthetic bacterial prionoid, using a hexa-histidine tag (H6). H6-RepA-WH1 undergoes stable amyloid oligomerization in the presence of catalytic concentrations of anisotropic nanoparticles. Then, in a physically separated event, such oligomers promote the growth of amyloid fibers of untagged RepA-WH1. SERS spectral changes of H6-RepA-WH1 on spherical citrate-AuNP substrates provide evidence for structural modifications in the protein, which are compatible with a gradual increase in β-sheet structure, as expected in amyloid oligomerization.

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