Evidence for copper-dioxygen reactivity during alpha-synuclein fibril formation

Alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn), a presynaptic protein implicated in Parkinson's disease, binds copper(II) ion (1:1) with submicromolar affinity in vitro. Insights on the molecular details of soluble- and fibrillar-Cu-alpha-syn are gained through X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the copper coordination environment (3-to-4 N/O ligands, average Cu-ligand distance approximately 1.96 A) exhibits little structural rearrangement upon amyloid formation in spite of the overall polypeptide conformational change from disordered-to-beta-sheet. Interestingly, we find that some population of Cu(II)-alpha-syn reduces to Cu(I)-alpha-syn in the absence of O(2). This autoreduction event appears diminished in the presence of O(2) suggestive of preceding Cu(I)/O(2) chemistry. Evidence for generation of reactive oxygen species is obtained by the observation of new emission features attributed to dityrosine cross-links in fibrillar samples.