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3D Domain-swapped human cystatin C with amyloid-like intermolecular beta-sheets
Structural highlights
DiseaseCYTC_HUMAN Defects in CST3 are the cause of amyloidosis type 6 (AMYL6) [MIM:105150; also known as hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis (HCHWA), cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) or cerebroarterial amyloidosis Icelandic type. AMYL6 is a hereditary generalized amyloidosis due to cystatin C amyloid deposition. Cystatin C amyloid accumulates in the walls of arteries, arterioles, and sometimes capillaries and veins of the brain, and in various organs including lymphoid tissue, spleen, salivary glands, and seminal vesicles. Amyloid deposition in the cerebral vessels results in cerebral amyloid angiopathy, cerebral hemorrhage and premature stroke. Cystatin C levels in the cerebrospinal fluid are abnormally low.[1] [2] Genetic variations in CST3 are associated with age-related macular degeneration type 11 (ARMD11) [MIM:611953. ARMD is a multifactorial eye disease and the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world. In most patients, the disease is manifest as ophthalmoscopically visible yellowish accumulations of protein and lipid that lie beneath the retinal pigment epithelium and within an elastin-containing structure known as Bruch membrane.[3] FunctionCYTC_HUMAN As an inhibitor of cysteine proteinases, this protein is thought to serve an important physiological role as a local regulator of this enzyme activity. Evolutionary Conservation Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf. Publication Abstract from PubMedOligomerization of human cystatin C (HCC) leads to amyloid deposits in brain arteries, and this process is greatly accelerated with a naturally occurring L68Q variant. The crystal structures of N-truncated and full-length HCC (cubic form) showed dimer formation via three-dimensional (3D) domain swapping, and this observation has led to the suggestion that an analogous domain-swapping mechanism, but propagated in an open-ended fashion, could be the basis of HCC fibril formation. Here we report that full-length HCC, when crystallized in a new, tetragonal form, dimerizes by swapping the same secondary structure elements but with a very different overall structure generated by the flexibility of the hinge linking the moveable elements. The beta-strands of the beta-cores of the two folding units of the present dimer are roughly parallel, while they formed an angle of about 100 degrees in the previous two structures. The dimers pack around a crystallographic dyad by extending their molecular beta-sheets in an intermolecular context. At the other edge of the molecular beta-sheet, side-chain-side-chain hydrogen bonds propagate the beta-structure in the same direction. In consequence, a supramolecular crystal structure is generated, with all the beta-strands of the domain-swapped dimers being perpendicular to one crystallographic direction. This observation is relevant to amyloid aggregation of HCC, as X-ray diffraction studies of amyloid fibrils show them to have ordered, repeating structure, consistent with the so-called cross-beta structure, in which extended polypeptide chains are perpendicular to the fiber axis and form infinite beta-sheets that are parallel to this axis. 3D domain-swapped human cystatin C with amyloidlike intermolecular beta-sheets.,Janowski R, Kozak M, Abrahamson M, Grubb A, Jaskolski M Proteins. 2005 Nov 15;61(3):570-8. PMID:16170782[4] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References
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