Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[biopharm]

Membrane-Protein Interactions Are Key to Understanding Amyloid Formation

"...
The authors have managed to navigate a substantial portion of
the still-growing literature to summarize the key membrane
characteristics that are involved in promoting or suppressing
oligomer formation. On the basis of general considerations, it is
clear that membrane- mediated aggregation should depend on
physical properties, such as net charge per unit area and
hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. Indeed, it has been found
that membranes composed of anionic phospholipids (such as
phosphatidylserine and phosphatidyglycerol) catalyze the
formation of amyloids.9 The mechanical properties of the
fluid membranes also affect the interaction between proteins, as
demonstrated using continuum theories. Thus, cholesterol
(Ch) or crowding agents that affect the overall membrane
fluidity also affect aggregation,10 as summarized succinctly in
Bucciantini et al.’s Perspective. It is likely that theoretical ideas in the soft matter field could be profitably used to predict
generic aspects of membrane-mediated interpeptide interaction.
The specific details of membrane composition, which cannot
be easily taken into account using only the general
physicochemical properties, require a deeper understanding of
biological membranes.
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