期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2017
卷号：114
期号：13
页码：E2634-E2643
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1700308114
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Protein aggregation is involved in many diseases. Often, a unique aggregation-prone sequence polymerizes to form regular fibrils. Many oncogenic mutants of the tumor suppressor p53 rapidly aggregate but form amorphous fibrils. A peptide surrounding Ile254 is proposed to be the aggregation-driving sequence in cells. We identified several different aggregating sites from limited proteolysis of harvested aggregates and effects of mutations on kinetics and products of aggregation. We present a model whereby the amorphous nature of the aggregates results from multisite branching of polymerization after slow unfolding of the protein, which may be a common feature of aggregation of large proteins. Greatly lowering the aggregation propensity of any one single site, including the site of Ile254, by mutation did not inhibit aggregation in vitro because aggregation could still occur via the other sites. Inhibition of an individual site is, accordingly, potentially unable to prevent aggregation in vivo. However, cancer cells are specifically killed by peptides designed to inhibit the Ile254 sequence and further aggregation-driving sequences that we have found. Consistent with our proposed mechanism of aggregation, we found that such peptides did not inhibit aggregation of mutant p53 in vitro. The cytotoxicity was not eliminated by knockdown of p53 in 2D cancer cell cultures. The peptides caused rapid cell death, much faster than usually expected for p53-mediated transcription-dependent apoptosis. There may also be non-p53 targets for those peptides in cancer cells, such as p63, or the peptides may alter other interactions of partly denatured p53 with receptors.
