Conformational distribution and α-helix to β-sheet transition of human amylin fragment dimer

Ruxi Qi, Yin Luo, Buyong Ma*, Ruth Nussinov, Guanghong Wei

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

Experiments suggested that the fibrillation of the 11-25 fragment (hIAPP(11-25)) of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP or amylin) involves the formation of transient α-helical intermediates, followed by conversion to β-sheet-rich structure. However, atomic details of α-helical intermediates and the transition mechanism are mostly unknown. We investigated the structural properties of the monomer and dimer in atomistic detail by replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations. Transient α-helical monomers and dimers were both observed in the REMD trajectories. Our calculated Hα chemical shifts based on the monomer REMD run are in agreement with the solution-state NMR experimental observations. Multiple 300 ns MD simulations at 310 K show that α-helix-to-β-sheet transition follows two mechanisms: the first involved direct transition of the random coil part of the helical conformation into antiparallel β-sheet, and in the second, the α-helical conformation unfolded and converted into antiparallel β-sheet. In both mechanisms, the α-helix-to-β-sheet transition occurred via random coil, and the transition was accompanied by an increase of interpeptide contacts. In addition, our REMD simulations revealed different temperature dependencies of helical and β-structures. Comparison with experimental data suggests that the propensity for hIAPP(11-25) to form α-helices and amyloid structures is concentration- and temperature-dependent.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)122-131
Number of pages10
JournalBiomacromolecules
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Jan 2014

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
National Science Foundation11274075, 11074047, 91227102
National Cancer InstituteZIABC010440

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