Difference in redox behaviors between copper-binding octarepeat and nonoctarepeat sites in prion protein

We studied the redox behavior of copper-binding sites in prion protein (PrP) to clarify copper's role in the pathological mechanism underlying prion diseases. We investigated the coordination structures, binding affinities, and redox potentials of copper-binding peptide fragments derived from the N-terminal domain of PrP by density functional theory calculations. We used four models for copper-binding moieties in PrP(60-96): two were derived from the PHGGGWGQ octapeptide repeat region of PrP(60-91), and the others were tripeptide Gly-Thr-His fragments derived from the copper-binding nonoctarepeat site around His96. We found that such PrP-derived copper-binding complexes exhibit conformationally dependent redox behavior; for example, the copper-binding complex derived from the octarepeat region tends to possess high reduction potential for the Cu(II)/Cu(I) couple, exceeding 0 V versus the standard hydrogen electrode, whereas the copper-binding nonoctarepeat model around His96 tends to possess high oxidation potential for the Cu(II)/Cu(III) couple and stabilize the higher-valent Cu(III) state. It is possible that such distinct redox activities of a copper-binding PrP are involved in the mechanism underlying prion diseases.