Amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides, in particular Aβ42 and Aβ40, exert neurotoxic effects and their overproduction leads to amyloid deposits in the brain, thus constituting an important biomolecular target for treatments of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We describe the engineering of cognate Anticalins as a novel type of neutralizing protein reagent based on the human lipocalin scaffold. Phage display selection from a genetic random library comprising variants of the human lipocalin 2 (Lcn2) with mutations targeted at 20 exposed amino acid positions in the four loops that form the natural binding site was performed using both recombinant and synthetic target peptides and resulted in three different Anticalins. Biochemical characterization of the purified proteins produced by periplasmic secretion in Escherichia coli revealed high folding stability in a monomeric state, with Tm values ranging from 53.4°C to 74.5°C, as well as high affinities for Aβ40, between 95 pM and 563 pM, as measured by real-time surface plasmon resonance analysis. The central linear VFFAED epitope within the Aβ sequence was mapped using a synthetic peptide array on membranes and was shared by all three Anticalins, despite up to 13 mutual amino acid differences in their binding sites. All Anticalins had the ability–with varying extent–to inhibit Aβ aggregation in vitro according to the thioflavin-T fluorescence assay and, furthermore, they abolished Aβ42-mediated toxicity in neuronal cell culture. Thus, these Anticalins provide not only useful protein reagents to study the molecular pathology of AD but they also show potential as alternative drug candidates compared with antibodies.
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June 2016
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Overnight culture of mutant (mlt1Δ/Δ) strain of Candida albicans, spotted on to BSA agar plate and grown at 30°C for 5 days. For further information please see pp. 1537–1552. Image kindly provided by Rajendra Prasad. - PDF Icon PDF LinkFront Matter
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Research Article|
May 27 2016
High-affinity Anticalins with aggregation-blocking activity directed against the Alzheimer β-amyloid peptide
Sabine Rauth;
Sabine Rauth
1
*Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science (CIPS-M) and Lehrstuhl für Biologische Chemie, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising (Weihenstephan), Germany
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Dominik Hinz;
Dominik Hinz
1
*Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science (CIPS-M) and Lehrstuhl für Biologische Chemie, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising (Weihenstephan), Germany
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Michael Börger;
Michael Börger
*Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science (CIPS-M) and Lehrstuhl für Biologische Chemie, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising (Weihenstephan), Germany
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Markus Uhrig;
Markus Uhrig
†Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, 66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany
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Manuel Mayhaus;
Manuel Mayhaus
†Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, 66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany
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Matthias Riemenschneider;
Matthias Riemenschneider
†Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, 66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany
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Arne Skerra
Arne Skerra
2
*Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science (CIPS-M) and Lehrstuhl für Biologische Chemie, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising (Weihenstephan), Germany
2To whom correspondence should be addressed (email [email protected]).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
February 14 2016
Revision Received:
March 26 2016
Accepted:
March 30 2016
Accepted Manuscript online:
March 30 2016
Online ISSN: 1470-8728
Print ISSN: 0264-6021
© 2016 The Author(s). published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society
2016
Biochem J (2016) 473 (11): 1563–1578.
Article history
Received:
February 14 2016
Revision Received:
March 26 2016
Accepted:
March 30 2016
Accepted Manuscript online:
March 30 2016
Citation
Sabine Rauth, Dominik Hinz, Michael Börger, Markus Uhrig, Manuel Mayhaus, Matthias Riemenschneider, Arne Skerra; High-affinity Anticalins with aggregation-blocking activity directed against the Alzheimer β-amyloid peptide. Biochem J 1 June 2016; 473 (11): 1563–1578. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20160114
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