Lipids uniquely alter rates of insulin aggregation and lower toxicity of amyloid aggregates

Amyloid formation is a hallmark of many medical diseases including diabetes type 2, Alzheimer's and Parkinson diseases. Under these pathological conditions, misfolded proteins self-assemble forming oligomers and fibrils, structurally heterogeneous aggregates that exhibit a large variety of shapes and forms. A growing body of evidence points to drastic changes in the lipid profile in organs affected by amyloidogenic diseases. In this study, we investigated the extent to which individual phospho- and sphingolipids, as well as their mixtures can impact insulin aggregation. Our results show that lipids and their mixtures uniquely alter rates of insulin aggregation simultaneously changing the secondary structure of protein aggregates that are grown in their presence. These structurally different protein-lipid aggregates impact cell viability to different extent while using distinct mechanisms of toxicity. These findings suggest that irreversible changes in lipid profiles of organs may trigger formation of toxic protein species that in turn are responsible for the onset and progression of amyloidogenic diseases.