Unraveling the pressure effect on nucleation processes of amyloidogenic proteins

The influence of pressure on the nucleation rate of insulin under fibril-forming conditions was studied and subsequently analysed using classical nucleation theory. The aim was a better understanding and quantification of the influence of pressure on protein aggregation/fibrillation reactions. The application of pressure has a drastic accelerating effect on the nucleation and growth process of insulin fibrils. We show that this effect arises from a volume decrease upon nucleus formation, due to formation of a less hydrated and more compact transition state that can be quantified extending nucleation theory by a pressure-volume term. Conversely, the absolute values of the lag time and the critical size of the nucleus cannot be satisfactorily described by the classical nucleation theory, which might be due to the presence of secondary effects, such as parallel aggregation pathways or fragmentation processes.