Identification of multiple amyloidogenic sequences in laminin-1

Amyloid fibril formation is associated with several pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type II diabetes, and prion diseases. Recently, a relationship between basement membrane components and amyloid deposits has been reported. The basement membrane protein, laminin, may be involved in amyloid-related diseases, since laminin is present in amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease and binds to amyloid precursor protein. Recently, we showed that peptide A208 (AASIKVAVSADR), the IKVAV-containing peptide, formed amyloid-like fibrils. We previously identified 60 cell adhesive sequences in laminin-1 using a total of 673 12-mer synthetic peptides. Here, we screened for additional amyloidogenic sequences among 60 cell adhesive peptides derived from laminin-1. We first examined amyloid-like fibril formation by the 60 active peptides with Congo red, a histological dye binding to many amyloid-like proteins. Thirteen peptides were stained with Congo red. Four of the 13 peptides promoted cell attachment and neurite outgrowth like the IKVAV-containing peptide. The four peptides also showed amyloid-like fibril formation in both X-ray diffraction and electron microscopic analyses. The amyloidogenic peptides contain consensus amino acid components, including both basic and acidic amino acids and Ser and Ile residues. These results indicate that at least five laminin-derived peptides can form amyloid-like fibrils. We conclude that the laminin-derived amyloidogenic peptides have the potential to form amyloid-like fibrils in vivo, possibly when laminin-1 is degraded.