Dipeptide repeat derived from C9orf72 hexanucleotide expansions forms amyloids or natively unfolded structures in vitro

Abstract

The abnormal repetition of the hexanucleotide GGGGCC within the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of both Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). Different hypothesis have been proposed to explain the pathogenicity of this mutation. Among them, the production of aberrant proteins called Dipeptide Repeat Proteins (DPR) from the repeated sequence. Those proteins are of interest, as they are toxic and form insoluble deposits in patient brains. In this study, we characterized the structural features of three different DPR encoded by the hexanucleotide repeat GGGGCC, namely poly-GA, poly-GP and poly-PA. We showed that DPR are natively unstructured proteins and that only poly-GA forms in vitro fibrillary aggregates. Poly-GA fibrils are of amyloid nature as revealed by their high content in beta sheets. They neither bind Thioflavin T nor Primuline, the commonly used amyloid fluorescent dyes. Remarkably, not all of the poly-GA primary structure was part of fibrils amyloid core.