The organization and assembly of a beta-sheet formed by a prion peptide in solution: an isotope-edited FTIR study

Insight into the details of protein misfolding diseases requires a detailed understanding of the conformation and dynamics of multistrand beta-sheet aggregates. Here, we report an isotope-edited FTIR study of a model peptide directed at the elucidation of residue-level details of the structure and mechanism of a beta-sheet aggregate. A series of specifically isotope-labeled derivatives of a short peptide (H1) derived from residues 109 through 122 of the prion protein PrPC have been synthesized and characterized by FTIR. On the basis of the analysis of variable temperature FTIR spectra of these peptides in solution, the organization of strands within the beta-sheets has been determined; at equilibrium, the strands form a beta-sheet in which the hydrophobic core (112-122) participates in the sheet structure, resulting in the alignment of residue 117 in all of the strands. The peptides initially form a kinetically trapped intermediate beta-sheet, with a distribution of strand alignments, which can be rearranged into the stable equilibrium conformation by an annealing cycle. These observations are discussed in terms of the biological significance of residue 117 of the prion protein and the mechanism of beta-aggregate nucleation in prion proteins.