title: The use of rigid, fibrillar Congo red nanostructures for scaffolding protein assemblies and inducing the formation of amyloid-like arrangement of molecules.
abstract: The ordered amyloid-like organization of protein aggregates was obtained using for their formation the rigid fibrillar nanostructures of Congo red as the scaffolding. The higher rigidity of used dye nanoparticles resulted from the stronger stacking of molecules at low pH (near the pK of the dye amino group) because of the decreased charge repulsion. The polylysine, human globin, and immunoglobulin L chain were arranged in this way to form deposits of amyloid properties. The scaffolding was introduced simply by mixing the dye and proteins at a low pH or the dye was used in the preorganized form by maintaining it in the electric field before and during protein addition. The polarization and electron microscopy studies confirmed the unidirectional organization of the complex. The precipitate of the complex was used for studies directly or after the partial or complete removal of the dye. The results suggest that the process of formation of amyloid-like deposits may bypass the nucleation step. It is possible if the protein aggregation occurs in unidirectionally organized (because of scaffolding) assembly of molecules, arranged prior to self-association. The recognition of the structure of amphoteric Congo red nanoparticles used for the scaffolding was based on the molecular dynamics simulation.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Medical Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kopernika 7, 31-034 Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spólnik
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stopa
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Piekarska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jagusiak
authors.forename: Leszek
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Konieczny
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rybarska
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Król
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roterman
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Urbanowicz
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zieba-Palus
mesh_terms: D000682:Amyloid / Q000737:chemistry*; D003224:Congo Red / Q000737:chemistry*; D005914:Globins / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000737:chemistry; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011107:Polylysine / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D011107:Polylysine; D003224:Congo Red; D005914:Globins