The Open Proteomics Journal

2010, 3 : 1-7
Published online 2010 January 15. DOI: 10.2174/1875039701003010001
Publisher ID: TOPROTJ-3-1

3, 4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid (DOPAC) Impairs α-Synuclein Interaction with Lipids

Wenbo Zhou , Chunmei Long , Anthony L. Fink and Vladimir N. Uversky
Institute for Intrinsically Disordered Protein Research, Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University Schools of Medicine and Informatics, 410 W. 10th Street, HS 5009, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.

ABSTRACT

α-Synuclein (α-Syn) is a small intrinsically disordered presynaptic protein known to form insoluble filamentous inclusions in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Various catecholamines can inhibit the α-Syn fibrillation in vitro. Recently, non-covalent binding of DOPAC (3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid), a normal product of the dopamine metabolism, was shown to inhibit the fibrillation of α-Syn due to the DOPAC-induced stabilization of the normally transient oligomers thus preventing them from subsequent fibril formation (Zhou, et al. J. Mol. Biol. 2009, 388 (3), 597-610). We are showing here that the interaction of DOPAC with α-Syn decreases the binding affinity of α- Syn to lipids, suggesting that DOPAC might lead to the gain-of-toxicity of α-Syn aggregates and loss-of-function of α- Syn, both of which could be related to progression of PD.

Keywords:

α-Synuclein, Parkinson's disease, aggregation, oligomerization, intrinsically disordered protein.