title: The role of electrostatic interaction in triggering the unraveling of stable helix 1 in normal prion protein. A molecular dynamics simulation investigation.
abstract: The conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) into scrapie isoform (PrPSc) is a key event in the pathogenesis of prion diseases. However, the conversion mechanism has given rise to much controversy. For instance, there is much debate on the behavior of helix 1 (H1) in the conversion. A series of experiments demonstrated that H1 in isolated state was very stable under a variety of conditions. But, other experiments indicated that helices 2 and 3 rather than H1 were retained in PrPSc. In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is employed to investigate the dynamic behavior of H1. It is revealed that although the helix 1 of Human PrPC (HuPrPC) is very stable in the isolated state, it becomes unstable when incorporated into native HuPrPC, which likely results from the long-range electrostatic interaction between Asp147 and Arg208 located in the helices 1 and 3, respectively. This explanation is supported by experimental evaluation and MD simulation on D147N mutant of HuPrPC that the mutant becomes a little more stable than the wild type HuPrPC. This finding not only help to reconcile the existing debate on the role of helix 1 in the PrPC-->PrPSc transition, but also reveals a possible mechanism for triggering the PrPC-->PrPSc conversion.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Computational Biology, Shandong Provincial Research Center for Bioinformatic Engineering and Technique, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, PR China.
authors.forename: Hong-Fang
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Hong-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009154:Mutation; D011328:Prions / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D055672:Static Electricity
chemical_list: D011328:Prions; D001224:Aspartic Acid