Concerted Action of Metals and Macromolecular Crowding on the Fibrillation of α-Synuclein

Title: Concerted Action of Metals and Macromolecular Crowding on the Fibrillation of α-Synuclein

Volume: 15 Issue: 10

Author(s): Larissa A. Munishkina, Anthony L. Fink and Vladimir N. Uversky

Affiliation:

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, α-synuclein, crowding, fibrillation, aggregation, metals

Abstract: Certain metals lead to increased risk of Parkinsons disease (PD) and the aggregation of α-synuclein is implicated in the PD pathology. Although α-synuclein fibrillation has been extensively studied in dilute solutions in vitro, the intracellular environment is highly crowded. We are showing here that certain metals cause a significant acceleration of α-synuclein fibrillation in the presence of high concentrations of various macromolecules mostly through decreasing the fibrillation lagtime. The faster fibrillation in crowded environments in the presence of heavy metals suggests a simple molecular basis for the observed elevated risk of PD due to exposure to metals.

Cite this article as:

Munishkina A. Larissa, Fink L. Anthony and Uversky N. Vladimir, Concerted Action of Metals and Macromolecular Crowding on the Fibrillation of α-Synuclein, Protein & Peptide Letters 2008; 15 (10) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/092986608786071102