Author:
Chandhok Sahil,Pereira Lionel,Momchilova Evgenia A.,Marijan Dane,Zapf Richard,Lacroix Emma,Kaur Avneet,Keymanesh Shayan,Krieger Charles,Audas Timothy E.
Abstract
AbstractThe formation of protein aggregates is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases and systemic amyloidoses. These disorders are associated with the fibrillation of a variety of proteins/peptides, which ultimately leads to cell toxicity and tissue damage. Understanding how amyloid aggregation occurs and developing compounds that impair this process is a major challenge in the health science community. Here, we demonstrate that pathogenic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, AL/AA amyloidosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis can aggregate within stress-inducible physiological amyloid-based structures, termed amyloid bodies (A-bodies). Using a limited collection of small molecule inhibitors, we found that diclofenac could repress amyloid aggregation of the β-amyloid (1–42) in a cellular setting, despite having no effect in the classic Thioflavin T (ThT) in vitro fibrillation assay. Mapping the mechanism of the diclofenac-mediated repression indicated that dysregulation of cyclooxygenases and the prostaglandin synthesis pathway was potentially responsible for this effect. Together, this work suggests that the A-body machinery may be linked to a subset of pathological amyloidosis, and highlights the utility of this model system in the identification of new small molecules that could treat these debilitating diseases.
Funder
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Canada Research Chairs
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC