Virtual Issue Protein Misfolding Prions and Amyloid

January 2010

Papers Selected by Ferdinand Hucho, Jan Johansson and Hermona Soreq

Front cover: Fig. 2 and 3 from I V Baskakov, FEBS J 274 pp 3756-3765 3.

Return to Virtual Issue index

Introduction

This Virtual Issue of the FEBS Journal is on protein misfolding, prions and amyloid and is the first in a series featuring current topics of neurochemistry. We have compiled reviews and original publications which have appeared in the FEBS Journal in the last two years. These topics are currently of special interest, as judged by the number of citations and downloads and even more so from the great number of manuscripts submitted to FEBS Journal in these areas. Many valuable articles were not included in this selection, which is not an indication of their lesser quality but rather a reflection of limitations on space.

Amyloid has been found to be associated with about 25 human diseases, many of which are neurodegenerative. It consists of disease-specific proteins or peptides with widely different native structures that have turned into insoluble ß-sheet fibrils. However, amyloid is also found in functional assemblies like bacterial curli fimbriae, yeast translation regulating proteins, and human pigment binding templates. In spite of significant recent advances in the understanding of the amyloid state at a molecular level, several important questions remain unanswered. Prions and amyloids bridge the gap between fundamental and applied research, because both the protein chemistry of misfolding and fibril formation and the molecular basis of the observed pathological effects are poorly understood. The majority of disease-related papers included in the list are reviews and research publications on Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, but functional amyloid and methodological aspects are also covered.

We hope this selection of FEBS Journal publications in the field of Neurochemistry will be informative and useful, for the beginner and specialist alike.

Review Articles

• Cell biology, regulation and inhibition of β-secretase (BACE-1)
  Clare E. Hunt, Anthony J. Turner
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 7, April 2009, Pages: 1845-59

• Emerging pathways in genetic Parkinson's disease: Autosomal-recessive genes in Parkinson's disease – a common pathway?
  Julia C. Fitzgerald, Helene Plun-Favreau
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 23, December 2008, Pages: 5758-66

• Emerging pathways in genetic Parkinson's disease: tangles, Lewy bodies and LRRK2
  Michael J. Devine, Patrick A. Lewis
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 23, December 2008, Pages: 5748-57

• Therapeutic approaches for prion and Alzheimer's diseases
  Thomas Wisniewski, Einar M. Sigurdsson
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 15, August 2007, Pages: 3784-98

• The modulation of metal bio-availability as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
  Peter J. Crouch, Anthony R. White, Ashley I. Bush
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 15, August 2007, Pages: 3775-83

• Branched chain mechanism of polymerization and ultrastructure of prion protein amyloid fibrils
  Ilia V. Baskakov
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 15, August 2007, Pages: 3756-65

• The spread of prions through the body in naturally acquired transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
  Michael Beekes, Patricia A. McBride
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 3, February 2007, Pages: 588-605
  
  

Original Articles

• The thioflavin T fluorescence assay for amyloid fibril detection can be biased by the presence of exogenous compounds
  Sean A. Hudson, Heath Ecroyd, Tak W. Kee, John A. Carver
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 20, October 2009, Pages: 5960-72

• An orphan dermaseptin from frog skin reversibly assembles to amyloid-like aggregates in a pH-dependent fashion
  Ruth Gößler-Schöfberger, Günter Hesser, Martin Muik, Christian Wechselberger, Alexander Jilek
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 20, October 2009, Pages: 5849-59

• Energy barriers for HET-s prion forming domain amyloid formation
  Raimon Sabaté, Virginia Castillo, Alba Espargaró, Sven J. Saupe and Salvador Ventura
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 18, September 2009, Pages: 5053-64

• Insulin is a kinetic but not a thermodynamic inhibitor of amylin aggregation
  Wei Cui, Jing-wen Ma, Peng Lei, Wei-hui Wu, Ye-ping Yu, Yu Xiang, Ai-jun Tong, Yu-fen Zhao, Yan-mei Li
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 12, June 2009, Pages: 3365-71

• Perturbation of membranes by the amyloid β-peptide – a molecular dynamics study
  Justin A. Lemkul, David R. Bevan
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 11, June 2009, Pages: 3060-75

• Interactions between the amyloid precursor protein C-terminal domain and G proteins mediate calcium dysregulation and amyloid β toxicity in Alzheimer's disease
  Gideon M. Shaked, Stephanie Chauv, Kiren Ubhi, Lawrence A. Hansen, Eliezer Masliah
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 10, May 2009, Pages: 2736-51

• Prion protein library of recombinant constructs for structural biology
  Simone Hornemann, Barbara Christen, Christine von Schroetter, Daniel R. Pérez, Kurt Wüthrich
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 8, April 2009, Pages: 2359-67

• The effects of α-secretase ADAM10 on the proteolysis of neuregulin-1
  Christian Freese, Alistair N. Garratt, Falk Fahrenholz, Kristina Endres
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 6, March 2009, Pages: 1568-80

• A facile method for expression and purification of the Alzheimer's disease-associated amyloid β-peptide
  Dominic M. Walsh, Eva Thulin, Aedín M. Minogue, Niklas Gustavsson, Eric Pang, David B. Teplow, Sara Linse
  FEBS Journal Volume 276, Issue 5, March 2009, Pages: 1266-81

• Formation of highly toxic soluble amyloid beta oligomers by the molecular chaperone prefoldin
  Masafumi Sakono, Tamotsu Zako, Hiroshi Ueda, Masafumi Yohda, Mizuo Maeda
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 23, December 2008, Pages: 5982-93

• Lipid-induced conformational transition of the amyloid core fragment Aβ(28–35) and its A30G and A30I mutants
  Sureshbabu Nagarajan, Kirubagaran Ramalingam, P. Neelakanta Reddy, Damiano M. Cereghetti, E. J. Padma Malar, Jayakumar Rajadas
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 10, May 2008, Pages: 2415-27

• Linkage-dependent contribution of repeat peptides to self-aggregation of three- or four-repeat microtubule-binding domains in tau protein
  Kayoko Okuyama, Chisato Nishiura, Fumie Mizushima, Katsuhiko Minoura, Miho Sumida, Taizo Taniguchi, Koji Tomoo, Toshimasa Ishida
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 7, April 2008, Pages: 1529-39

• Active γ-secretase is localized to detergent-resistant membranes in human brain
  Ji-Yeun Hur, Hedvig Welander, Homira Behbahani, Mikio Aoki, Jenny Frånberg, Bengt Winblad, Susanne Frykman, Lars O. Tjernberg
  FEBS Journal Volume 275, Issue 6, March 2008, Pages: 1174-87

• Dynamics of α-synuclein aggregation and inhibition of pore-like oligomer development by β-synuclein
  Igor F. Tsigelny, Pazit Bar-On, Yuriy Sharikov, Leslie Crews, Makoto Hashimoto, Mark A. Miller, Steve H. Keller, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Jason X.-J. Yuan, Eliezer Masliah
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 7, April 2007, Pages: 1862-77

• RCAN1-1L is overexpressed in neurons of Alzheimer's disease patients
  Cathryn D. Harris, Gennady Ermak, Kelvin J. A. Davies
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 6, March 2007, Pages: 1715-24

• The C-terminal region of CHD3/ZFH interacts with the CIDD region of the Ets transcription factor ERM and represses transcription of the human presenilin 1 gene
  Martine Pastorcic, Hriday K. Das
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 6, March 2007, Pages: 1434-48

• Docosahexaenoic acid stabilizes soluble amyloid-β protofibrils and sustains amyloid-β-induced neurotoxicity in vitro
  Ann-Sofi Johansson, Anita Garlind, Fredrik Berglind-Dehlin, Göran Karlsson, Katarina Edwards, Pär Gellerfors, Frida Ekholm-Pettersson, Jan Palmblad, Lars Lannfelt
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 4, February 2007, Pages: 990-1000

• High-resolution NMR studies of the zinc-binding site of the Alzheimer's amyloid β-peptide (274, p 46-59)
  Jens Danielsson, Roberta Pierattelli, Lucia Banci, Astrid Gräslund
  FEBS Journal Volume 274, Issue 1, January 2007, Pages: 46-59
  
  

Return to Virtual Issue index