Influence of Aromatic Residues on the Material Characteristics of Aβ Amyloid Protofibrils at the Atomic Scale

Hyun Joon Chang, Inchul Baek, Myeongsang Lee, Sungsoo Na

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    16 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Amyloid fibrils, which cause a number of degenerative diseases, are insoluble under physiological conditions and are supported by native contacts. Recently, the effects of the aromatic residues on the Aβ amyloid protofibril were investigated in a ThT fluorescence study. However, the relationship between the material characteristics of the Aβ protofibril and its aromatic residues has not yet been investigated on the atomic scale. Here, we successfully constructed wild-type (WT) and mutated types of Aβ protofibrils by using molecular dynamics simulations. Through principle component analysis, we established the structural stability and vibrational characteristics of F20L Aβ protofibrils and compared them with WT and other mutated models such as F19L and F19LF20L. In addition, structural stability was assessed by calculating the elastic modulus, which showed that the F20L model has higher values than the other models studied. From our results, it is shown that aromatic residues influence the structural and material characteristics of Aβ protofibrils.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2403-2414
    Number of pages12
    JournalChemPhysChem
    Volume16
    Issue number11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015 Aug 1

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

    Keywords

    • amyloid beta-peptides
    • mechanical properties
    • molecular dynamics
    • molecular modeling
    • stacking interactions

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
    • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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