N-terminal mutants of human apolipoprotein A-I: structural perturbations associated to protein misfolding

Since the early description of different human apolipoprotein A-I variants associated to amyloidosis, the reason that determines its deposition inducing organ failure has been under research. To shed light into the events associated to protein aggregation, we studied the effect of the structural perturbations induced by the replacement of a Leucine in position 60 by an Arginine as it occurs in the natural amyloidogenic variant (L60R). Circular dichroism, intrinsic fluorescence measurements and assays of binding to ligands indicate that L60R is more unstable, more sensitive to proteolysis and interacts with sodium dodecyl sulfate (a model of negative lipids) more than the protein with the native sequence and other natural variant tested, involving a replacement of a Trytophan by and Arginine in the amino acid 50 (W50R). In addition, the small structural rearrangement observed under physiological pH leads to the release of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin-1β from a model of macrophages. Our results strongly suggest that the chronic disease may be a consequence of the loss in the native conformation which alters the equilibrium among native and cytotoxic proteins conformation.