Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.133, No.11, 4018-4029, 2011
Structural Evolution of Iowa Mutant beta-Amyloid Fibrils from Polymorphic to Homogeneous States under Repeated Seeded Growth
Structural variations in beta-amyloid fibrils are potentially important to the toxicity of these fibrils in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We describe a repeated seeding protocol that selects a homogeneous fibril structure from a polymorphic initial state in the case of 40-residue beta-amyloid fibrils with the Asp23-to-Asn, or Iowa, mutation (D23N-A beta(1-40)). We use thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to track the evolution of fibril structure through multiple generations under this protocol. The data show that (i) repeated seeding selectively amplifies a single D23N-A beta(1-40) fibril structure that can be a minor component of the initial polymorphic state; (ii) the final structure is highly sensitive to growth conditions, including pH, temperature, and agitation; (iii) although the initial state can include fibrils that contain both antiparallel and parallel beta-sheets, the final structures contain only parallel beta-sheets, suggesting that antiparallel beta-sheet structures are thermodynamically and kinetically metastable. Additionally, our data demonstrate that ThT fluorescence enhancements, which are commonly used to monitor amyloid fibril formation, vary strongly with structural variations, even among fibrils comprised of the same polypeptide. Finally, we present a simple mathematical model that describes the structural evolution of fibril samples under repeated seeding.