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Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
Reprint requests to: Melanie R. Nilsson, Department of Chemistry, McDaniel College, Eaton Hall, 2 College Hill, Westminster, MD 21157, USA; e-mail: mnilsson{at}mcdaniel.edu; fax: (410) 386-4613.
(RECEIVED May 15, 2003; FINAL REVISION August 14, 2003; ACCEPTED August 14, 2003)
Article and publication are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.0360403.
1 Present address: Department of Chemistry, McDaniel College, Eaton Hall, 2 College Hill, Westminster, MD 21157, USA. ![]()
| Abstract |
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Keywords: Insulin; amyloid; deamidation; fibrils; symmetry
Abbreviations: d, days DTT, dithiothreitol Gdn, guanidine h, hours IEF, isoelectric focusing HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography
| Introduction |
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| Results and Discussion |
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10 or more insulin molecules. The fibrils were solubilized in aqueous ammonia or Gdn HCl and analyzed using mass spectrometry, HPLC, electrophoresis, and N-terminal sequencing. Mass spectrometric analysis of the solubilized protein from the fibrils revealed a major peak corresponding to the molecular weight of monomeric insulin (measured 5808.8 Da, calculated 5807.7 Da). No peaks in the vicinity of 12 kD were observed from the recovered fibril material, confirming earlier reports that any covalent dimer formed in solution is not incorporated into the fibrils (Brange et al. 1997; Nettleton 1999). Under reducing conditions, the molecular weights correspond to the full-length A-chain and B-chain (measured A-chain 2383.2 Da, B-chain 3432.5 Da; calculated 2383.7 Da, 3430.0 Da). The hydrolysis product in which the A8A9 bond is cleaved (observed in crystalline insulin preparations) was not present in the fibrils in detectable quantities because no A-chain fragments of molecular weight 852.0 Da and 1549.8 Da were observed after dissolution of the fibrils. This conclusion was confirmed by HPLC analysis; no peaks with the reported relative retention time of the split product were observed (Fig. 2A
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The modifications of insulin described earlier could have occurred either in solution or in the fibril itself. If the modifications occurred in the fibril, then these chemical reactions may be useful as a structural probe of fibril symmetry. However, the development of this methodology requires several additional pieces of information, including (1) knowledge of the degree of insulin fibril solubility under the experimental conditions, (2) a method to prepare fibrils of greater homogeneity, and (3) careful characterization of the extent of chemical modification. Insulin fibrils are not particularly soluble under the conditions used in these experiments. The amount of insulin that remains in solution under the incubation conditions is very small (24 h no seed, 4.5 ± 0.5%; 2 h seeded, 2.5 ± 0.5%, 8 h seeded, 1.5 ± 0.9%; average ± standard deviation) and, even after 3 d at 65°C, the amount of insulin in solution is negligible (1.8 ± 0.3%). Therefore, the contribution to the analysis that results from any monomer/fibril equilibrium will be negligible. Insulin fibrils of greater homogeneity were formed by reducing the lag time in the aggregation kinetics by seeding with an aliquot of solution containing preformed fibrils. After 8 h at 65°C, insulin fibrils were recovered from the seeded solution and these fibrils contained significantly less deamidation (21 ± 3%) than the fibrils formed after 24 h without seeding (74 ± 3%). (The amount of Asn A21 deamidation of the insulin remaining in solution for the 24 h unseeded incubation is very similar to the amount in the fibrils [78 ± 1%], which indicates that in unseeded fibril formation, the equilibrium between insulin and Asn A21 deamidated insulin is reached during the >1 h lag phase prior to fibril formation and there is no significant kinetic partitioning of the Asn A21 deamidated insulin between the fibrils and solution.) The 8 h seeded fibrils were purified and reincubated at pH 2.0, 65°C for an additional 16 h to achieve a total incubation time of 24 h. A comparison of the 24 h unseeded, 8 h seeded, and 8 h seeded + 16 h additional incubation is shown in Figure 2A
. The extent of deamidation in the 24 h unseeded fibrils is significantly higher than in the 8 h seeded fibrils + 16 h incubation, despite the fact that both samples were incubated under the same solution conditions for a total of 24 h. These data clearly demonstrate that the deamidation in insulin amyloid fibrils is either generally slower or less residues are susceptible to this modification than in solution. A more extensive time course analysis over a period of 13 d clearly reveals an upper limit on the number of Asn A21 residues in the fibrils that are susceptible to modification (Fig. 3
). The total percentage of Asn A21 residues in the fibrils that can be chemically modified is 52 ± 5% (Fig. 3
). This number is very close to 50%, indicating the presence of two distinct packing arrangements of the A-chain in the fibril, one in which the C-terminal region of the polypeptide chain is buried and one in which it is solvent exposed. The fibrils used for the reincubation experiment (8 h seeded), however, contained
20% (21 ± 3%) deamidated insulin in the beginning of the experiment and, therefore, it is worthwhile to estimate the likely final percent deamidation, assuming a twofold symmetry. Assuming two packing orientations of insulin in the fibrils (surface exposed and buried), the initial
20% deamidated insulin could be in either position. If the deamidation occurred after the insulin was in the fibrils, then the
20% deamidated material would all be in surface-exposed positions; subsequent incubation of these fibrils would result in the deamidation of the remaining surface-exposed molecules to yield a final value of 50% deamidated insulin. If, however, all of the deamidation occurred before fibril formation and there are no other complicating factors, then 10% deamidated insulin would be in a buried position in the fibril and 10% in a surface-exposed position; reincubation of these fibrils would result in a total of 60% deamidated insulin (10% buried + 50% surface exposed). Therefore, because of the
20% deamidation in the initial fibrils, the final amount of deamidation for a twofold symmetry would be between 50% and 60%, which is consistent with the data in Figure 3
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| Materials and methods |
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Fibril solubility
The amount of insulin remaining in solution after fibril formation and at equilibrium was quantified by measuring the absorbance at 280 nm of the solution (HP 8452A diode-array spectrophotometer) after removing the fibrils using an Anapore 0.02-µM microcentrifuge tube filter (Whatman). Data are reported as the average ± standard deviation, n = 3.
Fibril reincubation
Seeded fibrils were purified, resuspended in water at pH 2.0 to a concentration of 2 mM, and reheated for additional periods of time. After incubation, the fibril samples were solubilized and the integration of analytical HPLC traces was used to determine the relative proportions of modified and unmodified material. Data are reported as the average ± standard deviation, n = a minimum of 3.
Fibril dissolution
Insulin fibrils were solubilized by adding 7 M aqueous ammonia to a final pH of 10.5 followed by incubation for 30 min at room temperature. Insulin amyloid fibrils are soluble in basic solution (Waugh 1948) but these conditions can also promote deamidation. Control experiments, however, revealed that treatment of soluble insulin with aqueous ammonia (pH 10.5) for 12 h at room temperature does not lead to detectable deamidation of the A-chain by HPLC and only results in minor B-chain deamidation observable by IEF. In addition, experiments were performed in which fibrils were solubilized using 8 M Gdn HCl (pH 7.0), and produced comparable results to those in which the fibrils were solubilized with aqueous ammonia.
Analytical methods
Electrophoresis
Electrophoresis was performed using precast IEF gels (pH 310) under reducing or nonreducing conditions following the manufacturers instructions (Invitrogen). Staining was performed using either Coomassie brilliant blue or colloidal brilliant blue (Sigma).
HPLC
HPLC was performed on a Varian ProStar system with a dual wavelength (220 nm and 280 nm) detector. A C18 reversed phase column (Phenomenox) was used with a linear gradient (Buffer A = 5 mM HCl in water; Buffer B = 5 mM HCl in 80% acetonitrile). Peaks were integrated for analysis using the ProStar software.
Mass spectrometry
Insulin fibrils were dissolved in aqueous ammonia (pH 10.5) and one portion of the sample was reduced with DTT. The reduced and nonreduced samples were examined by MALDI mass spectrometry at the Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Facility (PNAC) at the University of Cambridge.
N-terminal sequencing
The conditions used for N-terminal sequencing are known to be able to promote a small amount of deamidation. Therefore, the insulin B-chain from the fibril samples was compared with a control sample and the difference in the degree of deamidation was determined. All sequencing was performed at the PNAC Facility, University of Cambridge.
| Acknowledgments |
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The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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