Abstract
The amyloid β-protein (Aβ) is believed to play a central role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis and there is great interest in understanding the process of Aβ aggregation, its underlying mechanism and the species generated during aggregation and their biological activity. Although Aβ has been studied for more than 30 years, analysis of its aggregation has been hampered by structural and chemical impurities. Here we provide a detailed protocol for the expression and purification of chemically and structurally homogeneous Aβ monomer. We also describe a method to produce covalent Aβ dimers linked by phenolic coupling of tyrosine residues.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Walsh DM, Hartley DM, Selkoe DJ (2003) The many faces of Aβ: structures and activity. Curr Med Chem Immunol Endocrinol Metab Agents 3:277–291
Welzel AT, Maggio JE, Shankar GM, Walker DE, Ostaszewski BL, Li S, Klyubin I, Rowan MJ, Seubert P, Walsh DM, Selkoe DJ (2014) Secreted amyloid β-proteins in a cell culture model include N-terminally-extended prptides that impair synaptic plasticity. Biochemistry 53:3908–3921
Walsh DM, Teplow DB (2012) Alzheimer’s disease and the amyloid β-protein. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci 107:101–124
Finder VH, Vodopivec I, Nitsch RM, Glockshuber R (2010) The recombinant amyloid-beta peptide Aβ1-42 aggregates faster and is more neurotoxic than synthetic Aβ1-42. J Mol Biol 396:9–18
Walsh DM, Thulin E, Minogue AM, Gustavsson N, Pang E, Teplow DB, Linse S (2009) A facile method for expression and purification of the Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid β-peptide. FEBS J 276:1266–1281
Szczepankiewicz O, Linse B, Meisl G, Thulin E, Frohm B, Sala Frigerio C, Colvin MT, Jacavone AC, Griffin RG, Knowles T, Walsh DM, Linse S (2015) N-terminal extensions retard Aβ42 fibril formation but allow cross-seeding and coaggregation with Aβ42. J Am Chem Soc 137:14673–14685
Meisl G, Kirkegaard JB, Arosio P, Michaels TC, Vendruscolo M, Dobson CM, Linse S, Knowles TP (2016) Molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation from global fitting of kinetic models. Nat Protoc 11:252–272
Cukalevski R, Boland B, Frohm B, Thulin E, Walsh DM, Linse S (2012) Role of aromatic side chains in amyloid beta-protein aggregation. ACS Chem Neurosci 3:1008–1016
O’Malley TT, Oktaviani NA, Zhang D, Lomakin A, O’Nuallain B, Linse S, Benedek GB, Rowan MJ, Mulder FA, Walsh DM (2014) Abeta dimers differ from monomers in structural propensity, aggregation paths and population of synaptotoxic assemblies. Biochem J 461:413–426
Hellstrand E, Boland B, Walsh DM, Linse S (2010) Amyloid β-protein aggregation produces highly reproducible kinetic data and occurs by a two-phase process. ACS Chem Neurosci 1:13–18
Cohen SI, Linse S, Luheshi LM, Hellstrand E, White DA, Rajah L, Otzen DE, Vendruscolo M, Dobson CM, Knowles TP (2013) Proliferation of amyloid-β42 aggregates occurs through a secondary nucleation mechanism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:9758–9763
Arosio P, Knowles TP, Linse S (2015) On the lag phase in amyloid fibril formation. Phys Chem Chem Phys 17:7606–7618
Arosio P, Cukalevski R, Frohm B, Knowles TP, Linse S (2014) Quantification of the concentration of Aβ42 propagons during the lag phase by an amyloid chain reaction assay. J Am Chem Soc 136:219–225
Meisl G, Yang X, Hellstrand E, Frohm B, Kirkegaard JB, Cohen SI, Dobson CM, Linse S, Knowles TP (2014) Differences in nucleation behavior underlie the contrasting aggregation kinetics of the Aβ40 and Aβ42 peptides. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111:9384–9389
Shankar GM, Li S, Mehta TH, Garcia-Munoz A, Shepardson NE, Smith I, Brett FM, Farrell MA, Rowan MJ, Lemere CA, Regan CM, Walsh DM, Sabatini BL, Selkoe DJ (2008) Amyloid-β protein dimers isolated directly from Alzheimer’s brains impair synaptic plasticity and memory. Nat Med 14:837–842
Roher AE, Chaney MO, Kuo YM, Webster SD, Stine WB, Haverkamp LJ, Woods AS, Cotter RJ, Tuohy JM, Krafft GA, Bonnell BS, Emmerling MR (1996) Morphology and toxicity of Aβ(1-42) dimer derived from neuritic and vascular amyloid deposits of Alzheimer’s disease. J Biol Chem 271:20631–20635
Mc Donald JM, O’Malley TT, Liu W, Mably AJ, Brinkmalm G, Portelius E, Wittbold WM 3rd, Frosch MP, Walsh DM (2015) The aqueous phase of Alzheimer’s disease brain contains assemblies built from approximately 4 and approximately 7 kDa Aβ species. Alzheimers Dement 11:1286–1305
Vigo-Pelfrey C, Lee D, Keim P, Lieberburg I, Schenk DB (1993) Characterization of β-amyloid peptide from human cerebrospinal fluid. J Neurochem 61:1965–1968
Yang T, O’Malley TT, Kanmert D, Jerecic J, Zieske LR, Zetterberg H, Hyman BT, Walsh DM, Selkoe DJ (2015) A highly sensitive novel immunoassay specifically detects low levels of soluble Aβ oligomers in human cerebrospinal fluid. Alzheimers Res Ther 7:14
Moir RD, Tseitlin KA, Soscia S, Hyman BT, Irizarry MC, Tanzi RE (2005) Autoantibodies to redox-modified oligomeric Aβ are attenuated in the plasma of Alzheimer’s disease patients. J Biol Chem 280:17458–17463
Sun S, Zhou J-Y, Yang W, Zhang H. Inhibition of Protein Carbamylation in Urea Solution Using Ammonium Containing Buffers. Analytical biochemistry. 2014;446:76–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2013.10.024
Shankar GM, Welzel AT, McDonald JM, Selkoe DJ, Walsh DM (2011) Isolation of low-n amyloid β-protein oligomers from cultured cells, CSF, and brain. Methods Mol Biol 670:33–44
Shevchenko A, Wilm M, Vorm O, Mann M (1996) Mass spectrometric sequencing of proteins silver-stained polyacrylamide gels. Anal Chem 68:850–858
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants to DMW from the National Institute of Health (AG046275) and the BrightFocus Foundation and to SL from the European Research Council and the Swedish Research Council. We thank Dr. Gunnar Brinkmalm for mass spec. analysis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
O’Malley, T.T., Linse, S., Walsh, D.M. (2018). Production and Use of Recombinant Aβ for Aggregation Studies. In: Nilsson, B., Doran, T. (eds) Peptide Self-Assembly. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1777. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7811-3_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7811-3_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7809-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7811-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols