Nucleophosmin-1 regions associated with acute myeloid leukemia interact differently with lipid membranes

Abstract Background Nucleophosmin-1 (NPM1) is an abundant multifunctional protein, implicated in a variety of biological processes and in the pathogenesis of several human malignancies. Its C-terminal domain (CTD) is endowed with a three helix bundle and we demonstrated that several regions within it, associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), have a strong tendency to form beta amyloid-like assemblies toxic for cells. The central helix of the bundle (H2) resulted the most amyloidgenic region; here we aim to model the cytoxicity processes of the H2 sequence and getting clues of a potential involvement in toxicity of the interaction between CTDs and cellular membranes. Methods We investigated the interaction of CTD-NPM1 regions with model membranes through fluorescence, SPR, CD and ESR spectroscopies and the localization of NPM1 by immune-fluorescence in leukemic cells . Results Our findings indicate that investigated regions are able to interact with membranes with different mechanisms and outlined the importance of the presence of cholesterol. Conclusions H2 showed a preference of interaction with membrane containing cholesterol determining a sensitive fluidification of the bilayer, while N-term H2 causes a stiffening of central and outer regions of the lipid system. Noticeably, NPM1 mut A demonstrated to thicken at the plasma membrane, differently from wt. These findings were corroborated by diverse mechanisms of interaction of CTDs toward membrane models in vitro. General significance This study suggests that the direct interaction of several regions of NPM1CTD with cellular membranes could be implicated in diseases where NPM1 is mutated and/or where its overexpression is cytoxic.