Cell membrane proteome analysis in HEK293T cells challenged with α-synuclein amyloids

Amyloids interact with plasma membranes. Extracellular amyloids cross the plasma membrane barrier. Internalized extracellular amyloids are reported to trigger amyloidogenesis of endogenous proteins in recipient cells. To what extent these extracellular and intracellular amyloids perturb the plasma membrane proteome is not investigated. Using α-synuclein as a model amyloid protein, we performed membrane shaving followed by mass spectrometry experiments to identify the conformational changes in cell surface proteins after extracellular amyloid challenge. We also performed membrane proteomics after the biogenesis of intracellular α-synuclein amyloids. Our results suggest that promiscuous interactions with extracellular amyloids stochastically alter the conformation of plasma membrane proteins. This affects the biological processes through the plasma membrane and results in loss of cell viability. Cells that survive the extracellular amyloid shock can grow normally and gradually develop intracellular amyloids which do not directly impact the plasma membrane proteome and associated biological processes. Thus, our results suggest that α-synuclein amyloids can damage the plasma membrane and related processes during cell-to-cell transfer and not during their intracellular biogenesis.