Selection of mutant µplasmin for amyloid-β cleavage in vivo

Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 21;10(1):12117. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69079-8.

Abstract

One of the main culprits of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the formation of toxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide polymers and the aggregation of Aβ to form plaques in the brain. We have developed techniques to purify the catalytic domain of plasmin, micro-plasmin (µPlm), which can be used for an Aβ-clearance based AD therapy. However, in serum, µPlm is irreversibly inhibited by its principal inhibitor α2-antiplasmin (α2-AP). In this study, we engineered and selected mutant forms of µPlm that are both catalytically active and insensitive to α2-AP inhibition. We identified surface residues of μPlm that might interact and bind α2-AP, and used an alanine-scanning mutagenesis method to select residues having higher activity but lower α2-AP inhibition. Then we employed saturation mutagenesis for further optimize both properties. Modeled complex structure of µPlm/α2-AP shows that F587 is a critical contact residue, which can be used as a starting position for further investigation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Catalytic Domain
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Mutation*
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*
  • Peptide Fragments / genetics
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism
  • Plasminogen / chemistry*
  • Plasminogen / genetics
  • Plasminogen / metabolism
  • Protein Conformation
  • alpha-2-Antiplasmin / metabolism*

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Peptide Fragments
  • alpha-2-Antiplasmin
  • microplasminogen protein, human
  • Plasminogen