Differences in nucleation behavior underlie the contrasting aggregation kinetics of the Aβ40 and Aβ42 peptides.

The two major forms of the amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide found in plaques in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Aβ40 and Aβ42, only differ by two amino acids in the C-terminal region, yet they display markedly different aggregation behavior. The origins of these differences have remained challenging to connect to specific molecular-level processes underlying the aggregation reaction. In this paper we use a general strategy to apply the conventional workflow of chemical kinetics to the aggregation of the Aβ40 peptide to identify the differences between Aβ40 and Aβ42 in terms of the microscopic determinants of the aggregation reaction. Our results reveal that the major source of aggregates in the case of Aβ40 is a fibril-catalyzed nucleation process, the multistep nature of which is evident through its saturation behavior. Moreover, our results show that the significant differences in the observed behavior of the two proteins originate not simply from a uniform increase in all microscopic rates for Aβ42 compared with Aβ40, but rather are due to a shift of more than one order of magnitude in the relative importance of primary nucleation versus fibril-catalyzed secondary nucleation processes. This analysis sheds light on the microscopic determinants of the aggregation behavior of the principal forms of Aβ and outlines a general approach toward achieving an understanding at the molecular level of the aberrant deposition of insoluble peptides in neurodegenerative disorders

Increased Secondary Nucleation Underlies Accelerated Aggregation of the Four-Residue N-Terminally Truncated Aβ42 Species Aβ5-42

Aggregation of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide into plaques is believed to play a crucial role in Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid plaques consist of fibrils of full length Aβ peptides as well as N-terminally truncated species. β-Site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme (BACE1) cleaves amyloid precursor protein in the first step in Aβ peptide production and is an attractive therapeutic target to limit Aβ generation. Inhibition of BACE1, however, induces a unique pattern of Aβ peptides with increased levels of N-terminally truncated Aβ peptides starting at position 5 (Aβ5-X), indicating that these peptides are generated through a BACE1-independent pathway. Here we elucidate the aggregation mechanism of Aβ5-42 and its influence on full-length Aβ42. We find that, compared to Aβ42, Aβ5-42 is more aggregation prone and displays enhanced nucleation rates. Aβ5-42 oligomers cause nonspecific membrane disruption to similar extent as Aβ42 but appear at earlier time points in the aggregation reaction. Noteworthy, this implies similar toxicity of Aβ42 and Aβ5-42 and the toxic species are generated faster by Aβ5-42. The increased rate of secondary nucleation on the surface of existing fibrils originates from a higher affinity of Aβ5-42 monomers for fibrils, as compared to Aβ42: an effect that may be related to the reduced net charge of Aβ5-42. Moreover, Aβ5-42 and Aβ42 peptides coaggregate into heteromolecular fibrils and either species can elongate existing Aβ42 or Aβ5-42 fibrils but Aβ42 fibrils are more catalytic than Aβ5-42 fibrils. Our findings highlight the importance of the N-terminus for surface-catalyzed nucleation and thus the production of toxic oligomers